This project aims to provide short-term interim solutions to improve reliability and utilisation of POAMA seasonal climate forecasts.

SEACI 1 was extended for 6 months to June 2009. SEACI 2 continues to focus on climate change, forecasting skill and the prediction of runoff and soil moisture.

SEACI 1 has helped define the implications of climate change for runoff in the Murray Basin, the level of climate change already experienced and the role of key drivers, including the Indian Ocean Dipole, the Southern Annual Mode and the Pacific Ocean.

Focusing on sub-tropical eastern Australia – including the northern grains belt, southern cane industry, the southern Qld and northern NSW dairy industry, subtropical grazing, most of Australia’s cotton industry and a range of subtropical horticultural crops – this project will determine key climate science R&D necessary to improve existing forecast skill.

This task is to determine how best the sugarcane industry in the Mackay Whitsunday region can meet the sustainability challenge of increasingly extreme events which are predicted to occur with Australia’s changing climate.

The project objective is to undertake a critical evaluation of climate risk management tools such as Yield Prophet, PYCal, WhopperCropper, the Mallee calculator and CropMate to provide a more integrated package to grain growers and suggest the key investment opportunities for further improvements in these Grains Tools.