You must first accept if you're to succeed

Sugar cane grower and globally renowned climate action advocate Robert Quirk will visit Stanthorpe for the first time this week.

RENOWNED: Robert Quirk at his farm. Picture: John Gass

SUGAR CANE grower and globally renowned climate action advocate Robert Quirk will visit Stanthorpe for the first time this week to speak at tomorrow's Managing Climate Risk in Agriculture conference.

A cane grower of 50 years' experience, Mr Quirk said he first realised the serious challenge climate change presented to his farm 20 years ago.

His property in the Tweed Valley, just south of the New South Wales border, is only half a metre above sea level so a rise in sea level could create havoc for him.

The increased severity of rainfall events also presents a challenge, and is among reasons Mr Quirk installed a pump system that rids his property of four megalitres of water in heavy rain.

"When the rain starts, the pumps start, and we try and keep ahead of any rain," he said.

"We pump about four megalitres of water off the farm every hour in heavy rain."

An active member of Farmers for Climate Action, Mr Quirk's public speaking and consulting career has taken him to 30 countries, where he has found farmers grappling with rising temperatures and more severe weather events.

The sugar industries in Fiji, Indonesia and North America are all struggling to adapt to increased temperatures which directly affect the productivity of crops and quality of sugar.

At the conference on Wednesday he will explain some innovations around the world that might inspire farmers and provide them with resources.

"I'll be talking about what's happening around the world and how farmers would like to be able to address climate change, but they haven't been able to at this stage," he said.

Asked what his main message to Granite Belt growers and farmers is, Mr Quirk said: "If you want to be more resilient in a changing climate, you first of all have to accept that there is a problem - the climate is changing.

"Then you can address it, and make a whole lot more money."