Achieving practice change on farms
Our recent work with farmer groups has identified some of their needs including:
- farmers’ desire to be involved in a bottom up approach (i.e. ownership) to achieve real practice change;
- sufficient farm diversification to allow farmers to be innovative, flexible and proactive in risk management;
- integration of enterprises matched to land capability;
- environmentally sustainable farm systems need to be rewarded
appropriately for meeting targets - e.g. sustainable management of
herbicides, nutrients and water;
- whole farms must remain profitable over the long-term if farmers are to be able to care for the environment;
- practice
change will be measurable - Key Performance Indicators used to monitor
progress will be standardised, thus assisting communication between
researchers and farmers;
- barriers to collaboration between farmers, farmer groups,
R&D providers, consultants, universities and State agencies will be
removed; and
- the community will provide clear guidelines
about their expectations for land management, environmental flows, etc.
and are prepared to reward farmers for delivering satisfactory
environmental outcomes.
