Fruit, veg 'at risk' from climate change

Fruit and vegetable growers have warned that climate change could eliminate
traditional crops in some parts of Australia.
The House of Representatives' primary industries committee held a public hearing in
Brisbane on Tuesday as part of its inquiry into farmers and climate change.
Chief advocate for horticulture lobby group Growcom, Rachel Mackenzie, told the
committee horticulture was particularly susceptible to climate change.
Fruit and vegetables were extremely responsive to water availability and
temperature, she said.
"Temperature changes, particularly in minimum temperatures, could alter growing
regions and cropping times, with some crops no longer able to be grown in Queensland
at all," Ms Mackenzie said.
A sufficient rise in temperature could mean that apples, which require a certain
number of cold days, could no longer be viable on Queensland's Granite Belt.
Ms Mackenzie said Lockyer Valley farmers, west of Brisbane, had already adapted
beetroot plantings in response to rising temperatures.
Ms Mackenzie said horticulture was responsible for only about one per cent of all
emissions from agriculture and needed to be seen as separate from other primary
industries in terms of the national response to climate change.
"In terms of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, we are very strongly of the
belief that horticulture industries, plant-based industries need to be considered
separately from the livestock industries," Ms Mackenzie said.
She said fruit and vegetable growers were looking at a range of strategies -
including new plant varieties, shifting growing seasons, moving to new regions and
employing new technologies - as they seek to deal with higher temperatures, water
shortages and extreme weather events.
Growers facing predictions of wetter weather as a result of climate change "aren't
particularly thrilled by the prospect" of more water because it meant floods, she
said.
Climate change also meant new pests and diseases which farmers would need to combat.