THINKING ABOUT OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUSTAINABILITY

The new Environmental Sustainability Scientist at SRA is Dr Simon Clarke who started work at Indooroopilly in January.

Dr Clarke’s principal responsibility is to oversee a growing number of projects that aim to assist sugarcane growers to reduce the nitrogen and agricultural chemicals coming from cane farms in Great Barrier Reef catchments, while maintaining farm productivity and profitability. In addition, his role is to help identify and assess sustainability opportunities for the industry.

“I was excited to take on the role because it combines my interest in sugarcane, background in plant sciences, and my expertise in life cycle thinkingfrom farm to outputs and wastes and beyond,” Simon said.

Simon is a plant physiologist who obtained his PhD at the University of Wollongong.

“Sugarcane is very efficient at producing sugar, as the high yields along Australia’s Queensland and northern NSW coastlines attest. However, the crop also produces a huge amount of biomass - the leaves, stalks, roots and trash, very efficiently. When you combine this with the scale of the industry, it presents great opportunities to contribute to a more sustainable economy.

“I’m interested in what the raw sugar supply chain can deliver in the current transition to an increasingly green and circular economy. Cane farms and mills already have a long history of being great examples of sustainable production. For example, mills are largely water and energy self-sufficient; and mill mud and ash are recycled on-farm, which reduces the need to buy fertilisers.

“It would be rewarding to help the supply chain to improve efficiency, to explore ways to supply green products to the economy, and for the industry to obtain credit for environmental contributions made on-farm.

“I hope to be part of a system that provides cane growers with information on the impact of their management practices both on- and off-farm, so they can be increasingly confident about the decisions they make and how these will boost their sustainability, productivity and profitability.”