6 minute read
True impact
BY RENEE CLUFF
A Cassowary Coast Reef water quality project has demonstrated that environmental sustainability can go hand-in-hand with industry sustainability.
Innisfail sugarcane grower Josh Oldano is invested in caring for his aquatic backyard alongside his farming business. Josh and his brother Adam, who manages the papaya side of the family enterprise, regularly cruise the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, marvelling at marine creatures and managing to earn some extra coin in a fishing side gig.
“We’ve had multiple encounters with all sorts of wildlife – whale sharks, dolphins, small whales – you just never know what you’re going to see and it’s pretty interesting to say the least,” Josh said.
“On the land we only apply what we need to, and it goes hand-in-hand with sustainability on the sea. We don’t take more than we need to and in turn, we get a joyful trip out of it and a change of scenery.”
Josh is among the many sugarcane growers in this area who are accredited through the Smartcane Best Management Practice (BMP) program. But more recently, he’s been going above and beyond that gold standard through a three-year Reef water quality program that puts growers front and centre.
Cassowary Coast Reef Smart Farming (CCRSF) project leader Debra Telford said the initiative marked a significant shift in how water quality programs are designed, funded and implemented.
“I’ve been involved in water quality projects for 15 years, and this was the first time the emphasis was not on blanket nitrogen rate reductions,” Debra explained. “Sugarcane growers in this area have already reduced nitrogen rates to the extent that further sweeping cutbacks would likely impact on district productivity.
“Instead, this project was focused on helping growers improve their Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE), which involved putting them and their enterprises at the centre and taking a whole-of-farm management approach. This will not only improve their productivity and profitability, but also result in improved water quality through reduced surplus of Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen (DIN) entering local waterways.”
The project involved more than 100 sugarcane and banana growers, including Josh. He worked one-on-one with an extension officer to develop a tailored productivity improvement plan, which ensured that yield and sugar content didn’t have to be sacrificed for environmental sustainability. All sugarcane growing participants received such a plan, while for banana growers, nutrient management plans were created.
You can grow a good crop, and you can do it sustainably
“It’s just doing what you have to at the correct time as best as you can manage,” Josh said. “You’re not going to go pouring stuff on and hope that it works, you do it tactfully. Our motto is everything in moderation but done correctly.
“The project highlighted that little things do matter and if we can do those things correctly, we’ll benefit.”
Debra Telford said drilling down into where gains could be found was not a one-size-fits-all approach. “Not only is farming not a recipe, but every grower is different and every enterprise is different,” she explained.
“Our team of extension officers had to really consider what would work for each grower and their farm, taking into account everything from their family circumstances to the availability of machinery and implements, to landscape and budgetary challenges.”
Nutrition, pests and diseases were all explored in the quest for productivity opportunities, along with improving uptake of newer, higher-performing sugarcane varieties.
Surveys were undertaken to detect district-wide nutritional crop deficiencies, as well as levels of Pachymetra root rot disease and root-eating nematodes.
Tissue culture plots and variety demonstration plots were planted to increase the availability and adoption of newer, disease resistant cane varieties.
“The strip trials that have gone on in the area have aided us and highlighted that we weren’t doing anything incorrect, but we could always become more diligent with what we’re doing, like getting the timing right and planting the right variety on the right soil type,” Josh said.
“The project was continually giving us more and more information on what the new varieties were doing in certain soil types.
“On top of that, talking with other growers at the shed meetings you heard for instance that a particular variety wasn’t working for someone, whereas for us it was working on a similar soil type. Then you have something to talk about and say okay, maybe it’s something we did in our practice that was slightly different.
“Little things like that made the world of difference.”
The project also partnered with research organisations including the University of Southern Queensland, along with behavioural science organisation Evidn, which provided expertise to facilitate grower-led learning and adoption.
“CCRSF has incubated a model of how programs will work in the future,” said Evidn Behavioural Scientist Sam Moore. “Previously, it was a top-down approach which often lost sight of the growers and what’s important to them.
“But to achieve true productivity and sustainability – practices that will continue and be improved upon after a project ends, the needs of growers must be considered. That way, there is trust and complete buy-in which creates a legacy. CCRSF has done just that.”
It’s shown what is possible by putting growers back in control
The results speak for themselves. Not only did the project easily attract participants, there were all-round improvements in NUE so that pollutant load reductions were met. Overall yield targets weren’t reached, but Debra said growers understood that was due to climatic factors, with the project period encompassing unusually long wet seasons two years in a row.
“12 months before the project ended, we also had flooding from ex Tropical Cyclone Jasper, which ripped up cane fields and resulted of course in productivity declines,” Debra explained. “But that didn’t impact on the real benefit of the project, which was arming growers with the tools, data and knowledge to continue to work towards their productivity goals well into the future.”
It’s a valuable outcome that Josh can confirm. “We’ll continue to gather the information, continue to talk with other farmers, continue to help ourselves and fine-tune our practices as best we can,” Josh said. “We’ll continue to manage our time better to get things done on time, every time.
“We’ve taken on the farm hand-in-hand with our father, Michael, and we’ll keep doing what we have to because we love it.
“I’d love to follow in my father’s footsteps. I’d love my kids to have the upbringing that we had. Personally, I think that’s pretty special.”
