Publisert den 06. October 2020 klokken 10:15

Graminor prepares Norway for the future with Climate Futures.

1^st of October was the official start for the new research center Climate Futures. A center for research-based innovation with the goal of preparing several sectors for the coming climate changes. Among these sectors is the agricultural sector, and Graminor participates in the endeavor.

Graminor is participating in the eight-year joined research project Climate Futures, a center for research-based innovation with the goal of preparing multiple sectors for the coming climate changes. The center officially started up the 1^st of October and is a cooperation between almost 40 partners from different sectors that are all strongly affected by climate change.

The partners are from sectors that are of critical importance to society and the economy, and that need to function well in a future with a different climate. Energy, shipping, insurance, management consulting, risk management, water, the public and agriculture form the sectors in Climate Futures focus area.

The main goal of Climate Futures is to minimize risk in sectors that is strongly exposed to climate change. The research is divided into sub-projects that is to work towards solving concrete issues in the participating sectors and together they will increase predictability and minimize risk.

In 2018 climate hurt the agricultural sector in Norway when crops were severely affected by drought. It stands to reason that the sector could have endured the drought better if they knew exactly how bad it would be farther in advance and could have made different choices, for instance to make use of more drought resistant plant varieties as well as other preventive measures.

One of the primary goals of the research center is better weather- and climate forecast, where the project will work on several time horizons. Better monthly, seasonal and decade forecasts will be developed. Among the reasons for Graminors participation in the research center is because this directly contributes towards our goal of making it easier to succeed as a farmer in Norway through creating more accurate weather and climate information on which to base decisions. For instance, about what species and varieties that will grant the highest yield on a given year.

Accurate information about future climate is of immense value to Graminors work. The complex composition of traits in plants are highly affected by interaction with the climate and environment surrounding the plants. Accurate predictions of future climate are of paramount importance in Graminors work of acquiring and creating the climate-adapted plant life of the future. Breeding new varieties takes from ten to well over twenty years and trustworthy information lets plant breeders more effectively make the right decisions when creating our future food. The goal of the sub-project Sustainable Food Production is to increase predictability for farmers and seafood-producers, here Graminor will participate with data related to plant breeding, establish necessary field trials and carry out genotypic and phenotypic analyses.

The partners in the center are:

NORCE

Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center

The Norwegian Meteorological Institute

The Norwegian Computing Center

The Norwegian School of Economics (NHH)

SNF

Statistics Norway

The University of Bergen

Graminor

Norges Bondelag

Norsk Landbruksrådgivning