Researchers believe regions in a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa replicate weather conditions Australia is set to face in the future as a result of climate change.

These areas are generating varieties of food, like wheat and lentils, which are well-adapted to some of the future climates Australia and other parts of the world will encounter.

Former Canberran Andrew Noble is now based in Jordan as the deputy director general for research at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).

Mr Noble oversees the food security research program.

As well as research, the program aims to enable economies by educating communities on farming which then provides employment opportunities.

The elements of the programs include key commodities like wheat and barley, plus pulses like lentils and chickpeas and small ruminants like sheep and goat.

"They make up what would be termed, if you put them all together, sustainable farming systems," Mr Noble said.

"That is the key for us working in these countries, they are the countries that need it so desperately."

"It is probably where the greatest opportunities exist with regard to re-establishing functional agricultural systems. People will always need food."

The relationship is mutually beneficial, with Australia providing funding through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and a number of research organisations, and contributing technological advances to the farming efforts overseas.

After ICARDA pulled out of its headquarters in Syria due to the conflict, it has decentralised with offices across the region.

"One of the key attributes of the region, particularly the Middle East and North Africa, is over 50 per cent of the food that's consumed is actually imported, and this holds significant risk," Mr Noble said.

"The challenge we think is reducing that dependence on import. Fluctuations in prices of basic commodities, wheat and some of the pulses, have huge implications in food security particularly at a household level."

The research and implementation methods have "huge implications" for Australia, with a hotter and drier climate predicted.

"These varieties will effectively be well adapted to these changing conditions and we're now moving these varieties into regions in Sub-Saharan Africa that could never have produced wheat before because it was too hot," Mr Noble said.

"There's a direct benefit not only to Australia but from a global perspective, a global public good."

Mr Noble was in Canberra this week for a CSIRO workshop.