Carbon Farming Outreach Program

Video: Welcome to the Carbon Farming Outreach Program

Video: Professor Richard Eckard discusses the need for carbon farming

What’s the link with carbon in farming and drought resilience?

Australia is already 22% more rainfall variable than any other country in the world. Professor Richard Eckard, from the Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre within Vic Hub partner The University of Melbourne, says historic management of the land took this rainfall variability into account.

“Now we’re becoming aware of this in how we do carbon farming, that we have to actually change from strictly European farming systems to systems that are more attuned to this high variability we’re encountering. And so there’s a lot to be learned from the Indigenous land-management practices that we need to then incorporate into traditional non-Indigenous farming.”

Prof Eckard and the Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre, which sits within Melbourne Uni’s Faculty of Science, researches the impact of climate change on agriculture and agriculture on climate.

Key questions about carbon farming that farmers may have include:

• Why do I need to manage my emissions?
• Is carbon farming something I should be doing more of?
• Where do I start?

There are several resources for understanding carbon in farming.

The Carbon Farming Outreach Program training package was developed with Vic Hub partner The University of Melbourne in partnership with the Indigenous Carbon Industry Network and Indigenous Professional Services. It provides information to help farmers and land managers make decisions about reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and storing carbon.

The training package comprises 5 topics, each of which takes around an hour to go through:

• Topic 1 : Introducing carbon farming
• Topic 2 : What carbon farming means for farmers and land managers
• Topic 3 Your greenhouse gas account
• Topic 4: Planning carbon farming activities
• Topic 5: The Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme

Other resources include: the Carbon and Emissions Resource Kit developed by Vic Hub partner Agriculture Victoria.