Managing water shortages in energy efficient ways should be a top research priority, according to participants in a recent conference on climate change held in Wagga Wagga.

Sixty-five farmers, advisors and government officials attended the meeting, which was one of two roundtable discussions held in early November to consider potential impacts of climate change on agriculture and regional communities.

A similar number attended the other roundtable meeting in the north of the State, in Tamworth.

Dr Alison Bowman, Director of the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, said drought and water were not surprisingly major areas of discussion.

However it was important not to confuse the two.

“One of the big issues for farmers was [that whilst] they try to move towards more efficient irrigation systems, these may be less energy efficient,” Dr Bowman said.

“For irrigators, climate change raises the question of whether they should be reducing water use, even if this means increasing energy use.

“They believe guidelines to help weigh up those decisions should be developed.”

A second research area was identified at the conference as the potential of soils as carbon sinks.

This arises from a process called carbon sequestration, which occurs when plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and then store it in plant biomass and soil.

Options for carbon trading and calculating the true worth of carbon were also discussed.

Dr Bowman said the meeting wanted further research into lifecycle analysis of all farming methods, for example, the feedlot industry presented the work they have done in providing a lifecycle,showing where all the emissions come from and where they go to in their industry.

“This was regarded as necessary to assess energyinput and output and couldbe used by other industriesin a similar way.”

The industries represented at the Wagga Wagga meeting included local feedlots, viticulture, organics, broadacre cropping, horticulture, rice and other irrigated industries.