Using Climate Information to Minimise Agricultural Risk with a Focus On Crop Disease Management: a Collaboration Among Australia, USA and Brazil.

Agricultural practices in Australia, USA and Brazil rely heavily on rainfall conditions. These countries have significant experience in the management of natural resources by taking measures to cope with frequent droughts, floods and extreme temperatures affecting the lives of millions of people. Research efforts have been addressing issues related to climate variability and climate change scenarios. This paper builds on the work “Development of a disease forecasting system for strawberries as a tool on AgroClimate” based at the University of Florida, “Climate and crop disease risk management” at the University of Western Sydney funded by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), and “Seasonal climate-based prediction of plant diseases – the case of soybean rust in Brazil” based at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). An international collaborative program is envisaged initially to help promote a better understanding of how climate change will affect the interactions between identified key pests, pathogens and hosts. Modelling tools are available to predict the geographical range of plants and their pests and pathogens but often they do not take into consideration the specific biology of the host, pest or pathogen and their interactions. Results from ongoing research at the selected institutions in participating countries will be shared to identify appropriate tools and future research needs to help producers understand and plan for climatic conditions.