Acronyms used in this document
Bacillus thuringiensis |
BT |
Commonwealth Scientific and Industry Research Organisation |
CSIRO |
Department of Agriculture Western Australia |
DAWA |
Genetically Modified |
GM |
Integrated Pest Management |
IPM |
Ord Bonaparte Program |
OBP |
Ord Irrigation Cooperative |
OIC |
Ord Land and Water |
OLW |
Ord Land and Water Management Plan |
OLWMP |
Ord River Irrigation Area |
ORIA |
Polyacrylamide |
PAM |
In October 2000 the Ord Land and Water Management Plan was delivered to the community and a Governing Board elected to oversee its implementation. Within the Plan 47 goals, 78 strategies and 251 actions dealt with Natural Resource Management within the region. The plan was divided into four sections.
- Land (irrigated agriculture within the ORIA)
- Water (Lakes and Rivers)
- Conservation (Impacts on biodiversity)
- Town (Urban issues)
With the development and subsequent release of the ‘Land’ component of the Plan came a commitment from the agricultural industry and the community to address water quality, water efficiency and ground water issues identified within the Plan. Goals that specifically address these issues are-
- To reduce the load of chemical contamination in tailwater by 40% within five years.
- To reduce the load of nutrient contamination in tailwater by 40% within five years.
- To reduce sediment loads in tailwater by 40% within five years.
- To improve irrigation management to achieve 65% average annual water use efficiency on all irrigation farms within five years.
- To improve irrigation infrastructure and management to achieve a water delivery efficiency of 75% within five years.
- To reduce groundwater levels to below two metres from the surface across the whole irrigation area within five years while preventing any new areas from rising above that level.
- Hold the quality of groundwater at or above the high quality present in 2000.
The role of Ord Land and Water (OLW) is to encourage and assist where able in the implementation of the plan and achievement of the goals within. To help achieve the ‘Land’ Goals OLW has developed the following projects in partnership with industry and other organisations.
• Identifying Alternative Uses for Irrigation Drains to Reduce Off-Farm Impacts. (OLW & OIC)
• Minimising Off-site Impacts of Pesticides in the ORIA (OLW, OBP& CSIRO)
• Artificial Wetlands Assessment. (OLW & OIC)
• On-farm Water Use Efficiency Tool. (OLW AND DAWA)
Scope and purpose of this report
Currently the monitoring of water usage and quality is done at a systems level. This creates an overall picture of the systems efficiencies and direction in terms of meeting the Goals of the OLWMP. However it does not yet give an indication of how any progress is being made from a farm management perspective.
In late 2003 it was decided that a measurement of progress should be made against the on farm actions identified within the Plan. This would help determine grower’s progress at a farm level towards achieving the Goals set for water quality, water efficiency and groundwater and assist in determining the practicalities of those actions and growers capacity to implement them. In early 2004 growers were surveyed to see what actions within the Plan were being adopted at a farm level, what actions were not being adopted and why.
The survey was by way of a questionnaire that sought information on the following –
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Were growers using the actions of the Plan as a part of current farm management strategies?
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Had their adoption of these actions increased or decreased since 2000?
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By what amount had this changed?
1.4 Methodology
A total of 12 growers that managed 6,600 hectares or 52% of the ORIA that was furrow irrigated were interviewed and their responses recorded. Supplementary comments relevant to the questionnaire were also recorded and added to the report.
Growers were asked if they currently had adopted a particular action out of the Plan. They were then asked whether their uptake of this action had increased and decreased since 2000 and if so by what amount, rated as ‘Small’, ‘Medium’ or ‘Major’. Other questions sought to identify how the actions were adopted and for what reason.
The individual increases or decreases and the rates of change are reported in here as an average of the responses to indicate an overall trend.
Water efficiency
According to the results of the questionnaire the overwhelming majority of the ORIA is and for sometime been regularly maintained by laser levelling to improve water efficiency and all growers had strategies in place to reduce silt moving off farm
The adoption of alternative means of irrigation such as ‘trickle’ had been taken up a by number growers prior to 2,000. Since then there has been a small reduction in overall grower usage. The total cropped area under alternative irrigation was indicated as being quite small compared to furrow irrigation.
The use of PAM has been reduced significantly since 2000; this was likely due to difficulties encountered in applying the product while irrigating.
Groundwater
The reduction of ground-cracking by maintaining a level of soil moisture was not considered to be a good farming practice according to most growers interviewed. Growers believed that local clays naturally crack and this characteristic is seen to be an integral component of soil health. However many were using other strategies to reduce the effects of surface water on ground water levels such as working the ground prior to an initial irrigation.
No growers recycled tailwater on their farms and none grew trees to reduce groundwater locally.
A few growers knew of areas of leaky soil on their farms but applied only minimal specific management practices to that area. It was considered that those areas had remained the same size since 2000.
Although a significant amount of growers regularly test groundwater it is done in the context of complying with Quality Assurance procedures. Since 2000 there has been a small increase in testing as more growers become quality assured.
A significant number of growers plant cover crops during the wet season for a number of reasons including general soil health and to reduce erosion. Although in response to the questionnaire growers indicated there was only a small increase in cover cropped area this year compared with 2000. It was stated that the area was reduced from the previous year as a cost cutting measure brought on by the current downturn in farm profitability.
Water quality
The most significant change to grower’s practices since 2000 was that all growers were actively seeking new ways to develop farming systems that maximise the plant's natural defences. This is being achieved by refining conventional farming practices and by developing new practices that focus on soil as a living organism. Both strategies include the use of –
• Wet season cover crops.
• Varying levels of IPM strategies.
• Research from a variety of areas.
• Better and alternative usage of chemicals and fertilisers.
There have been several changes to fertiliser practices since 2000 by the majority of growers, the most significant being a reduction in water run fertilisers applied to furrow irrigation. Most growers use folia fertilisers on the horticultural crops and to a lesser extent less mobile forms of fertiliser to try and maintain longer term crop health. Growers are still currently engaged in experimenting with the usage of less mobile forms of fertiliser.
Most growers are using some form of IPM on farm and since 2000 there has been a significant increase in its usage.
Most growers are using soft chemicals in their pest management strategies but felt that the registration of these chemicals was too limited for the crops grown locally. Growers were also worried about using certain unregistered products as a pest control agents (such as milk powder for the control of mildew) and the view the National Registration Authority may take that may limit their usage.
All growers used properly trained and certified spray operators and were aware of the local industry codes for spraying; a majority of growers were able to conform to those codes without management changes. There had been an increase in knowledge of pesticide label recommendations. Also since 2000 a majority growers are now able to place pesticides on a paddock more accurately. Most growers still use volatile forms of pesticides but since 2000 there has been a small reduction of usage.
GM crops (cotton) are now grown by one farm for research purposes only and growers had indicated there has been major decrease of plantings since 2000 due to growing and yield issues. This may change if ‘2-gene’ cotton is made commercially available.
Most growers are now using research results and guidelines gained from organisations and other growers
Conclusions
Since 2000 it appears that there has been wide spread incremental improvements in practices across the majority of growers in the ORIA. Most of this work has been focused on dealing with the issues of water quality, soil health and pest control.
In terms of uptake it appears that growers are adopting practices that will improve general crop and soil health while also addressing environmental issues. If important crop management practices such as ‘improving soil health’ are considered to be at risk by an action from the plan then farmers may decide to address that action in another way (see Groundwater: Focus Area 1). This illustrates that growers are aware of a suite of environmental issues but need to balance them against best farm management practices. It also appears that growers are tending to work with the existing irrigation delivery systems. Trickle on a large scale and its associated costs may not be widely adopted in the short term even though it has been trialled by many growers since the late 1980’s
In summary, 86% of the actions in the OLWMP ‘Land’ component have been acted on by growers but with varying degrees of success. A significant issue is that 67% of actions relating to groundwater were not acted on by growers. Many of the actions such as water storage on farm and the use of trees on property to control groundwater are not seen as to directly contribute to crop health. Although due to the way the actions of the Plan cross-over, growers acting on water efficiency issues are positively addressing groundwater issues but in such a way that they are also addressing crop and soil health.