Commercialising climate risk

The Kondinin Group is a not for profit member based organisation. We have 17 000 members that pay an annual subscription. The membership fees are used to produce the magazine and a monthly research report. This is very similar to the product testing of Choice but only based on agricultural products.

Unlike statutory or federal authorities we must recover costs on many of our activities. Commercializing the Climate Risk and Yield Information Service, jointly developed by SARDI, Agriculture Western Australia and Kondinin Group, has provided valuable insights in to the problems and opportunities that face climate risk management. Our experiences may well serve as valuable lessons for researchers and extensionist seeking to have work adopted and used sustainably.

Climate research and extension in Australia is still largely driven from the top down and focused on national, state and regional scale. Successful adoption requires a more upwardly driven and on farm approach. The approach of illustrating the technical benefits of research has been disproved in many fields. Without an understanding of the needs of the farmers, researchers are unlikely to achieve widespread adoption of their work.

In the past year it has become increasingly evident that the Kondinin Group’s 17 000 members across Australia provide a targeted community for agricultural risk information and services. For example Kondinin Group and Topcrop are currently about to embark on a water use efficiency awareness exercise. Kondinin Group provides the opportunity to utilise our community with a wide range of research content. The national nature of the organisation helps to bridge the statutory boundaries, which are often irrelevant in climate research and development.