Resilience is a word we are hearing more and more in agriculture.

The dictionary meaning of resilience is the ability to return to original form or position after being bent, compressed or stretched.

In agricultural terms it is the ability of our farmers and natural resources to continue producing food in a time of dramatic change.

How do we become more resilient in agriculture?

An interesting new study by the Victorian Government, titled Sustainable and secure food systems for Victoria, suggests that we need to increase diversity, build better networks and never stop learning and adapting.

If we focus only on becoming more efficient in food production, without considering the impacts of this efficiency, we may well diminish agriculture’s resilience.

Diversity means we need to embrace a range of production strategies: conventional, low input, organic and cutting edge technology, as each will contribute knowledge and innovations to improve our food and agriculture systems.

We need to look at systems that will ensure that the natural resources that underpin agricultural production do not collapse, particularly systems that minimise soil disturbance and build soil carbon and water holding capacity.

Beneficial farming practices can include polyculture cropping, perennial crops and pastures, cover cropping, crop rotation, pasture/crop rotation, rotational grazing, minimum till, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), seed saving, and landscape hydrology.

We need to include a range of farming scales - large, medium and small - as each will be able to resist different kinds of risk.

"Large enterprises are likely to profit from systems that rely on technical investments," says the report, "whereas smaller-medium enterprises can make use of intimate knowledge of landscapes and observation of microclimates."

We need a diversity of crops and plants within single farms and within regions.

This increases ecological resilience to adverse weather conditions and pests, and reduces economic risk.

We need diverse food distribution systems, including regional and local market outlets, more production of food where most of the population lives (i.e. in urban areas) and changes in our diets so that we reduce the impact of our food choices on the natural environment.

If you would like to read more of this thought provoking report, which discusses in some detail the environmental challenges and risks that our food system faces, go to www.ecoinnovationlab.com/pages/library.php