Agri-Climate Outlooks

Agri-Climate Outlooks (ACO) is a four-year program focused on improving and enhancing seasonal outlook services provided to Australian farmers, fishers, and foresters to support better decision-making and greater resilience. The program will develop decision-specific digital forecast tools and products tailored to specific commodities. It also supports improvements to Australia's dedicated weather forecast modelling system. ACO is a collaboration across AgriFutures Australia, Australian Eggs, Australian Wool Innovation, Cotton Research and Development Corporation, Dairy Australia, Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Grains Research and Development Corporation, Hort Innovation, Meat & Livestock Australia and Sugar Research Australia., via Agricultural Innovation Australia, delivered by the Bureau of Meteorology. There are five Agri-Climate Outlooks workstreams, covering products, services, support and industry capability building: - Establishment of a dedicated team of agri-climate specialists to provide relevant insights to support farmers, fishers and foresters (growers) with decision-making. - Upskilling and training for growers and their advisers to accurately interpret and utilise weather, climate and water products to inform agricultural decisions. - Development of easy to understand, decision-specific forecast products delivered via appropriate digital channels. - Development of methods to overlay skill on the Bureau's seasonal outlook products and promote the methods as best practice to other seasonal outlook service providers. - Improvements to Australia's high calibre sovereign seasonal forecasting, through improved accuracy of multi-week to seasonal forecasts. This will help ensure the future stability of the Australian agriculture sector and increase the potential magnitude of benefits delivered via Workstreams 1-4.