Phosphorus & Climate Smart Agriculture Network (PACSAN)
What is PACSAN?
A unique knowledge-sharing project enabling Australia and China to strengthen both countries' food security in the face of climate change and phosphorus vulnerability.
Funded by the National Foundation for Australia China Relations, an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, PACSAN is a project that brings together researchers and stakeholders from across both countries’ food systems, to share knowledge and devise strategies to meet the challenges both climate change and phosphorus scarcity pose for food supply.
Changing global trends in food production and consumption is an important issue for both Australia and China. These trends have impact on both countries’ food security, health, prosperity and equity, and they can impact both countries’ ability to meet their sustainability goals.
The PACSAN network will address two main challenges of food production: the greenhouse gas emissions produced along the food chain, and the growing scarcity of phosphorus, which is essential as a fertiliser for growing food. The agriculture and food sectors contribute a third of total global GHG emissions, while the source of the essential element phosphorus for fertiliser-use currently comes from finite, risky and increasingly expensive markets, which is also contributing to widespread global nutrient pollution.
Over the course of 18 months, researchers from the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures and SILC Business School, Shanghai University will drive a series of broad-ranging stakeholder interviews and workshops in both Australia and China, to understand where linkages and sustainable pathways may exist for the two countries. Through this process, the project partners will co-identify current trends and future opportunities for research, new markets, investment and the trade of sustainable goods and services.
This collaboration will extend to an interactive online framework that will allow continued knowledge-sharing and-scenario-building into the future.
The PACSAN project aims to provide a scientific foundation for a more sustainable food future, recommendations for policy in both countries, and a deepening of Australia-China relations.
