When drought spells cash

As droughts increase we’ll be less prepared, because of the long-running, deliberate “drought” in investment in agricultural science. Predictably, the politicians will again panic and try to kickstart a stalled science effort by kneejerk methods.

The shame of it is we’ll be trying to kickstart it at the same time as rest of the world, which according to a recent study by Julian Alston and Phil Pardey, has also let the agricultural R&D engine run down.

If the Hadley Centre is even half right, the world is going to be desperate for answers to drought by mid-century, and will pay anything to get them.

Australians are drought specialists, arguably the world drought specialists. We have developed farming, grazing and landscape management systems to cope with temporal and spatial climate variability - and even to exploit them. This sort of knowledge and technology will be at a premium in an aridifying world. It will be a huge global industry. But knowledge doesn’t stand still and today’s cutting edge leader is tomorrow’s also-ran.

Not every human needs the Internet to survive (Kevin and John) but everyone must eat. Securing a sustainable food supply under drying, erratic conditions remains the highest priority - for nations, regions and for the world. For once, it would be nice if Australia took forethought and action ahead of the mega-droughts - and was ready with carefully-planned, well thought-out and technologically-excellent solutions.

If the climate gurus are disappointed in their predictions and it rains, then all we’ll gain is a more efficient and sustainable agriculture, great food and a more prosperous Australia. What is there to lose?