Managing drought, fire, and flood risk to create climate resilient food systems

Australian Mission to the European Union

Time: Friday, 20. January 2023, 09:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Room: M1

Languages: English, German

Summary:

The Expert Panel opened with Australian Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt setting out some of the climate related challenges Australian farmers face and how the industry is adapting and improving. Shirley Tarawali, the Assistant Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), compared and contrasted this to the challenges she sees livestock farmers in Africa dealing with. She also spoke about the work ILRI is doing to support more sustainable livestock systems. Next to speak was Max Makuvise, the Resident Director for Shangani Holistic, which has 7000 cattle roaming free on an African ranch. Mr Makuvise spoke about the importance of integrating cattle and wildlife management on the same property. The fourth panellist to speak was Vice President of Copa Cogeca, and President of the Irish Farmers Association, Tim Cullinan. Mr Cullinan spoke about the work Irish farmers were doing to reduce their sectoral emissions by 25% by 2030; strategies included looking at feed additives, breeding techniques and carbon sequestration. After some follow up questions from Moderator Rose O’Donovan, questions were taken from the audience, such as the panellists views on lab-grown meat.

The common thread through the panellists’ contributions were that agriculture models must be tailored to the landscape – there is no one size fits all, innovation will help us achieve our sustainability goals, and countries must cooperate to ensure food security for everyone.