Australian Farm Institute Podcast Australian Farm Institute

Australian Farm Institute 2019 Roundtable

Session: History and future of ecosystem services

Facilitator: AFI Executive Director Richard Heath

Guest speaker: Mick Keogh, Deputy Chair of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

Presentation summary:

Mick Keogh told the AFI Roundtable that Government attempts to establish markets that pay farmers to protect the environment fall short of what’s needed to achieve good outcomes. He said increasing market-based incentives and minimising regulation have the potential to generate significant environmental benefits and help drought-proof farm income but making this happen will be a major policy challenge for the farm sector.

Click or copy/paste link below for Roundtable slide decks and speech transcripts

farminstitute.org.au/news-and-events/ART_2019/Roundtable-2019-speakers

Weekly Times article: https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/national/environmental-deregulation-accc-supports-marketbased-incentives/news-story/0146e40e7b51ce11a5e84a2ff2d6434e

Download the Spring 2019 Farm Policy Journal edition on “Managing agriculture’s ecosystem services”

http://farminstitute.org.au/publications/journal/farm-policy-journal-spring-2019

Podcast produced by www.growloveproject.com

A landholder’s guide to participate in soil carbon farming in Australia

In this episode we interview the authors of our latest occasional paper which looks at the benefits and costs to landholders of participating in soil carbon farming.

AFI Executive Director, Richard Heath chats with guests Professors Robert White, Brian Davidson and Richard Eckard.

Download the paper here, or copy and paste the following link into your web browser

https://www.farminstitute.org.au/publication/a-landholders-guide-to-participate-in-soil-carbon-farming-in-australia/

In this podcast, AFI’s Richard Heath is joined by the authors of a discussion paper the AFI has published on the rising opportunity cost of water for a chat on how this issue impacts the southern Murray-Darling Basin.

Host:

Richard Heath, Executive Director, AFI

Guests:

Dr Leigh Vial - Primary producer, Director of SunRice, Adjunct Fellow at the University of Queensland, and a former Head of the International Rice Research Institute's Experiment Station (Philippines).

Andrew Bomm - Independent consultant, Progressive Agriculture

To download the episode visit - www.farminstitute.org.au

Australian Farm Institute 2019 Roundtable

Session: After Hours Forum

Facilitator: Gabrielle Chan, The Guardian Newspaper

Guest speaker: Dr. Annette Cowie, Principal research scientist, Climate, NSW DPI and co-author IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land

Presentation summary:

Dr Cowie is co-leader of the International Energy Agency Bioenergy research network ‘Climate and sustainability effects of bioenergy within the broader bioeconomy’, and a member of the Science Policy Interface of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Her current research focuses on sustainability indicators and climate impact assessment in agriculture and forestry, including life cycle assessment of bioenergy and biochar systems. Dr Cowie’s keynote presentation at the AFI Roundtable After Hours Forum focused on the role of biochar in environmental restoration, especially in agricultural systems, as well as the role of agriculture in sustainable land management to address climate change impacts.

Click or copy/paste link below for Roundtable slide decks and speech transcripts

http://farminstitute.org.au/news-and-events/ART_2019/Roundtable-2019-speakers

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/srccl/

Podcast produced by www.growloveproject.com

Australian Farm Institute 2019 Roundtable

Session: Opportunities to build natural capital

Facilitator: AFI General Manager, Katie McRobert

Guest speaker: Dr. Francisco Ascui, Soil CRC and Adjunct Professor at University of Tasmania

Presentation summary:

Dr Ascui is an internationally recognised expert in environmental accounting and finance who has pioneered a new approach to evaluating natural capital credit risk in agricultural lending, and he is currently contributing to the work of the Soil CRC in this area. His AFI Roundtable presentation focused on the benefits of natural capital credit risk assessment for lenders, primary producers and the environment.

Click or copy/paste link below for Roundtable slide decks and speech transcripts

farminstitute.org.au/news-and-events/ART_2019/Roundtable-2019-speakers

Download the Spring 2019 Farm Policy Journal edition on “Managing agriculture’s ecosystem services”: http://farminstitute.org.au/publications/journal/farm-policy-journal-spring-2019

Podcast produced by www.growloveproject.com

Australian Farm Institute 2019 Roundtable

Session: Opportunities to build natural capital

Facilitator: AFI General Manager, Katie McRobert

Guest speaker: Dr. Stuart Whitten, Economist at CSIRO Land & Water

Presentation summary:

Dr Whitten discussed natural capital market design at the AFI Roundtable, noting that reasons we are interested in markets are:

· Placing positive incentives on desired outcomes

· Flexibility in individual responses

· Encouraging cheapest effective change

In combination these can drive innovation and the “gains from trade” that create new and better ways to secure the future for farmers, Dr Whitten said. He said trust is the lubricant that facilitates the information exchange which underpins markets and is critical for farmer participation in natural capital markets.

Click or copy/paste link below for Roundtable slide decks and speech transcripts
farminstitute.org.au/news-and-events/ART_2019/Roundtable-2019-speakers

Download the Spring 2019 Farm Policy Journal edition on “Managing agriculture’s ecosystem services”: http://farminstitute.org.au/publications/journal/farm-policy-journal-spring-2019

Podcast produced by www.growloveproject.com