Sue Heisswolf, Stewart Lindsay, John Bagshaw, and Noel Vock

Preferred presentation format: Refereed Paper

Affiliation(s): Department of Primary Industries Queensland

Title: Ms Susanne Heisswolf Position: Senior Extension Horticulturist Organisation: Department of Primary Industries Queensland Contact email: Susanne.Heisswolf@dpi.qld.gov.au Contact phone: 07 47614028

Keywords: horticulture, environment, EMS, Landcare, extension, farmers

The Queensland horticulture industry is under intense pressure to demonstrate good environmental practices. In north Queensland, this is largely due to the location of most production in the coastal catchments adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. In coastal south Queensland, the pressure is largely due to the close proximity of major horticultural production to large peri-urban areas in one of the fastest growing regional areas of Australia.

It is widely accepted that voluntary practice change is the most cost-effective means of reducing the environmental impacts of farming. However, farmers have valid reasons for their reluctance to voluntarily make significant changes. These include lack of immediate or readily observable benefits, increased complexity and risk to farming operations, and associated financial and opportunity costs.

Two similar but different approaches have recently demonstrated success as extension tools in achieving voluntary practice change in the Queensland horticultural industry. The first involves the use of EMS principles with banana and vegetable farmers in the coastal wet and dry tropics regions of north Queensland. The second involves the use of a Landcare group approach, on an industry rather than traditional community basis, with subtropical fruit and pineapple farmers in coastal southeast Queensland. In both cases, the focus has been on participatory learning and capacity building to facilitate voluntary adoption of good environmental practices.

Key learning points:

• Both approaches have demonstrated the importance of engaging with farmers on their terms and addressing their identified key concerns about environmental issues. These include the need for a working process to manage environmental risks and complex legislation; tools to identify the real and relevant environmental impacts; a context for thinking about current practices and ways to improve; and communicating good environmental outcomes to the community.
• Both approaches have provided opportunities for building effective linkages between farmers and community groups such as catchment groups and Waterwatch groups.