Future drought could drain primary sector profit

Comparing trends in 70,000 farm tax returns with temperature and soil moisture data, scientists were able to understand the historical relationship between local weather and farm profits in both the dairy and sheep+beef industries, and apply it to future scenarios. Manaaki Whenua research co-lead Dr Kendon Bell says that uncontrolled climate change is likely to bring somewhat more severe and far more frequent drought.

Under a high climate change scenario – the pathway representing little climate action and high economic growth – sheep+beef farmers, vulnerable to high temperatures and soil moisture loss, could see a profit loss of up to 54% by the end of the century, subject to a high degree of uncertainty.

Analysing potential changes in soil moisture, both dairy and sheep+beef show a decrease in profit by 2100 (an average of 20% for dairy and 7% for sheep+beef). A more moderate climate change scenario suggests – unsurprisingly – more moderate losses given soil moisture changes alone, but losses nonetheless.

Dr Bell notes one use of these results is to better understand how climate change might encourage farmers and growers to implement adaptation measures, or even to change what they farm and where.

Due to large capital investments, it’s difficult for farmers to change the way they use their land, and the slow pace of climate change will be unlikely to force land-use change in the near future. Yet this research suggests that land-use change should at least be on the cards in some places.

“In New Zealand, very little research has been done about the implications of climate change for society using approaches that measure the historical relationship between weather conditions and economic and social outcomes – this research is among the first to do so.

Rural communities may bear a large share of the burden of reducing emissions, and we have tried to understand, using real financial data, the size of the additional burden that climate change might impose.”