Both in Australia and globally, agriculture is identified as one of the sectors most exposed to adverse climate change impacts.
While the effects of climate change will impact all sources of the sector's value stores, a new research report by the Australian Farm Institute focuses on the biophysical impact on natural capital and the need for policy to address this concern.
Themes from the soon-to-be-released report, which interrogates the need for a national strategy on climate change and agriculture, will be discussed at the AFI's mid-year conference in Brisbane next week.
AFI's report, Australian agriculture: an increasingly risky business, will also underpin the conference agenda.
AFI executive director Richard Heath said it was important that the sector addressed the complex challenges and increased risks of climate change.
"While an increasing proportion of Australian farmers are adopting practices which integrate soil, water and vegetation management, incremental changes alone will not provide the sector-wide resilience needed to function sustainably within a changed natural system," he said.
"The impacts of climate change are also exacerbating the complexity of risk management both directly and indirectly throughout agricultural supply chains.
"This conference can't provide all the answers, but by addressing adaptable systems, community trust, the impact on farm business, changing biosecurity frontiers and water management, we hope to better inform industry on meeting climate change risks through collective effort."
Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management David Littleproud will open the two-day conference on Wednesday June 26.
Sponsored by Australian Community Media, the agenda features more than 30 speakers and panellists across seven sessions representing farmers, community leaders, researchers, business managers, communicators and sector advocates.
Mr Heath said that a diversity of perspectives was important when tackling the 'wicked problem' of climate change and agriculture.
Many of the conference sessions will include a farmer panel to 'ground-truth' the discussion before the session is opened to Q&A from the floor and online.
Some of the topics to be covered over the two days include: the potential for community perceptions of agriculture's impact on climate to create disruptive change; how climate change might impact geo-political factors which impact export demand and what business adaptations are required at the farm level; and the increasing challenge of distributing water resources.
Conference speakers will represent the National Farmers' Federation, ABARES, CSIRO, World Wildlife Fund, GrainGrowers, Cattle Council, AgForce, the MDBA, Farmers for Climate Action, the Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland Farmers' Federation and more.
More information on sessions and speakers for the 26-27 June event can be found at farminstitute.org.au.