Forecasting the major crops for Australia and crop yield insurance: an integrated climate, biophysical and remote sensing approach

Since early settlement, the existence of most rural communities in Australia has depended on agriculture. Dryland cropping has been one of the main activities contributing towards the long-term viability and sustainability of these communities. This is still true today. However, the operating environment of producers has become more challenging. Food producers are increasingly exposed to variability and change in world markets, commodity prices and climate, thus increasing their vulnerability and threatening their livelihoods. Advance knowledge of the associated risk in crop production, however, can mitigate some of the impacts of such factors. Hence, easily accessible, near real-time, objective and accurate crop production information is becoming increasingly valuable in decision-making for agricultural industry and government agencies. To date, industry and crop forecasters have had a good idea of the potential crop yield for a specific season, but advance, accurate, timely and objective information on crop area for a shire or region has been mostly unavailable. Here, we present a holistic approach to bridging the information gap, which is exacerbated by the lack of accurate and timely information and a projected increase in market and climate volatility within Australia and globally. In addition, the hedging of production risk against highly volatile climate and marketing environments is incorporated through a new crop insurance product called YieldShieldt, which is also discussed.