RiskWi$e (the National Risk Management Initiative), is a 5-year national initiative of approximately $30 million that will run from 2023 to 2028. It seeks to understand and improve the risk-reward outcomes for Australian grain growers by supporting grower on-farm decision-making. To do this it will:
- Involve grain growers in the identification of on-farm decisions that have unknown components of risk-reward that will be studied to elucidate new insights.
- Develop an improved understanding of the risk-reward relationships for on-farm management decisions.
Inform growers and their advisers of new insights into optimising rewards and managing risk. - Challenge grower decision-making so future management decisions are evaluated in terms of the probability of upside returns offset against the associated downside risks.
- Our target outcome is that 80% of grain growers can articulate their production management decisions in terms of probability of upside returns (reward) offset against the associated downside risks.
To deliver RiskWi$e, a participatory action research methodology (an approach to research that pro-actively involves members of communities affected by that research in the research itself) will be employed. The centrepiece of this will see growers and their advisers quantifying the probabilities of uncertainty of outcomes and assessing the risk-reward payoffs for specific management decisions in the context of their own farming operations.
RiskWi$e was developed in response to two primary issues. Firstly, growers in various forums including the GRDC National Grower Network highlighted that the risk associated with grain production has escalated and needs attention. Secondly, to action Objective 5 ‘Manage risk to maximise profit and minimise losses’ of the GRDC RD&E Plan (2018-23).