The joint Great Barrier Reef Report Card released jointly by the Australian and Queensland governments last week showed great progress towards targets for nutrient, chemical and sediment runoff.
Report Card 2015 assesses the reported results of the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan actions up to June 2015.
It shows that almost half horticulture and grains land across Great Barrier Reef catchments is already managed using best management practice systems.
This snapshot of figures from 12 months ago shows that the renewed efforts now under way across agriculture to implement the Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan can only continue to improve on these initial results.
Growcom is among a number of agricultural bodies which is rolling out voluntary industry best management practice programs to increase commitment to improved water quality for the Great Barrier Reef.
Fruit and vegetable growers in Reef Catchments and the south east Queensland Catchment have horticulture’s Best Management Practice program – Hort360 – to manage voluntarily the loss of nutrients, agricultural chemicals and sediment from their farms.
Hort360 is not only enabling growers to manage runoff effectively from the farms but also is assisting to enhance a farm’s natural resource assets and create a more viable and sustainable farming business in the long term.
To date more than 950 horticulture properties have completed modules in Reef catchments.
Growcom has been working in conjunction with NQ Dry Tropics, Fitzroy Basin Association and Burnett Mary Regional Group to deliver Reef Water Quality Grants across Queensland. Grants have assisted growers to implement changes that improve management practices and productivity, while also reducing agricultural run‐off into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. However, incentive funding has now concluded.
Practices implemented in the past have included:
- Minimum til.
- Fertigation system upgrades.
- Row crop sprayers introduced.
- Improved chemical application.
- Advanced fertigation practices.
- Erosion control measures and sediment traps built.
- Wetlands construction.
- GPS variable rate control introduced.
- Soil health improvement and soil moisture monitoring.
In implementing these practices horticulture growers have invested $3.20 (cash and in-kind) for every $1 provided by the Australian Government Reef Trust.
Growers surveyed in 2016 have indicated their primary reasons for changing their practices have been environmental, time savings, increased productivity and access to funding.
A series of video case studies have been developed demonstrating benefits of practice change with more to come via the Reef Trust and broader Hort360 initiatives.
Despite this progress, Growcom notes the 2018 target for horticulture in the Great Barrier Reef Report Card. It stipulates that 90 per cent of the horticulture production area is to be implementing best management practices by that year.
However, due to a decrease in funding, a more targeted deliverable set by the Australian Government and an inability to fund incentives to assist change, Growcom believes this to be an unachievable target without additional funding support.
We call on the governments to consider the re-introduction of incentive grants which have achieved so much positive progress on the ground for a small investment which has been more than trebled by growers’ own investment.
Growers who wish to get involved in the Hort360 program should contact: Scott Wallace, Land and Water Manager, 0408 135 002 swallace@growcom.com.au
