National Risk Management Initiative – Action Research Groups

The National Risk Management Initiative (NRMI) is a GRDC initiative extending over five years that aims to understand and improve risk-reward outcomes for Australian grain growers through participatory action research (PAR).

Explicitly the NRMI aims to:

1. develop an improved understanding of the risk-reward relationships for important on-farm management practices and decisions,

2. inform growers and their advisers of new insights into managing risks and maximising rewards, and

3. challenge grower decision-making so future management decisions are thought of in terms of probability of upside returns offset against the associated downside risks.

In PAR, growers and their advisers will quantify the probabilities of uncertainty of outcomes and assess the risk-reward payoffs for given management decisions in the context of their own farming operations. At the conclusion of NRMI, a suite of extension packages and artefacts (decision support tools) will continue to inform and challenge grain growers, their consultants and advisers to consider farm management decisions as informed by probable rewards (profit $/ha) and associated probable risks (loss $/ha).

GRDC is seeking to engage up to twelve (12) ARGs nationally to undertake participatory action research (PAR) programs that form the core deliverable of the NRMI. Parties interested in participating as an ARG are encouraged to form consortia that could encompass grower groups, consultants, agribusiness, Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs, and relevant scientific support to address their nominated Themes.