Home › Our Outputs › Environmental objectives
Environmental objectives
On this page:
- Assessing the Australian grains industry's contribution to ecologically sustainable development
- Developing environmental management systems in partnership with industry
- Adapting to climate change and managing industry greenhouse emissions
- Reducing the impact of herbicides through integrated weed management
- Developing plant-based management of dryland salinity
The GRDC seeks investments that address the environmental concerns represented in the Australian Government's National Research Priorities and the Minister's rural R&D priorities (as shown in Tables 3 and 4), and provide both short-term and long-term economic, environmental and social benefits for the corporation's industry and community stakeholders.
Such investments have a strong focus on identifying profitable solutions to environmental challenges, because profitable solutions are likely to be adopted, as long as they are compatible with existing operations and easily implemented. An assessment of the investment portfolio carried out through the Industry Working Group on Natural Resource Management released during 2005-06 found that 17 percent of the GRDC portfolio is invested in projects that are specifically directed at achieving beneficial environmental outcomes.
The following sections describe some of the environmental successes arising from GRDC investments in 2005-06. The energy-efficient practices the GRDC applies in its own work are discussed in Part 3.
Assessing the Australian grains industry's contribution to ecologically sustainable development
The GRDC is working in collaboration with the Bureau of Rural Sciences to develop a framework to report on the Australian grains industry's contribution to ecologically sustainable development. This includes an assessment of grains industry contributions to a range of economic, social and environmental outcomes that affect Australia's total quality of life.
An interactive profile brings together economic, social and bio-physical information specific to the grains industry. The economic, social and bio-physical components are repeatedly subdivided to give a comprehensive picture of industry contributions to ecologically sustainable development in space and over time. The profile is also designed to evolve over time in response to new information and input from users. The profile is the first demonstration product of the National Land and Water Resources Audit's Signposts for Australian Agriculture project.
This approach provides a robust approach to reporting the triple bottom line benefits of the industry. The information in the framework can be used for strategic planning and to demonstrate the industry's environmentally sustainable development credentials. The framework can be viewed online at www.signposts4ag.com/signposts-grains.
Developing environmental management systems in partnership with industry
GRDC-supported work has made tailored environmental management systems (EMSs) available to graingrowers at a range of entry levels. The systems range from simple checklists through to systems appropriate for full ISO:14001 certification.
In 2005-06, the GRDC supported an approach being developed by the Grains Council of Australia and the Australian Government's EMS pathways program to assist the majority of graingrowers in demonstrating their environmental assurance credentials. The approach is based on a benchmarking system, using simple spreadsheets. The project aims to provide a convenient tool for grain producers that can be used by individual growers, agroecological zones, major production regions, or the industry as a whole.
The approach works on the premise that the various elements of the modern grain production system used by farmers today are more environmentally sustainable than those used in the late 1970s. For example, chemical use is more restrained, and minimum tillage systems protect the soil surface from erosion by reducing the removal of groundcover. The project gives producers the ability to record their normal farming activities and practices, and includes a straightforward mechanism, based on farmers' own paddock records, to produce environmental performance reports.
While data is currently presented in spreadsheet format, ongoing work is seeking to identify ways to use a database format, as this would allow significantly more flexibility in data reporting and manipulation. The spreadsheets are available from the Grains Council of Australia's website at www.grainscouncil.com/EMS/benchmarking.htm.
The work builds on past investments by the GRDC in EMSs, and provides an approach that will benefit the majority of grain growers.
Adapting to climate change and managing industry greenhouse emissions
Towards a Single Vision for the Australian Grains Industry: The Australian Grains Industry Strategy 2005-25 highlights climate change as a major threat to the grains industry. The GRDC, in partnership with the Australian Greenhouse Office and the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting and its partners, has been developing approaches to reduce industry greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to climate change.
One thing in the climate change debate is certain, and that is that carbon dioxide levels have risen significantly, to the highest levels ever reached, and are continuing to rise. CSIRO climatemodelling work shows that temperatures are likely to increase in the next 30 years over much of the grain belt. Already, work from the Agricultural Production Systems Research Unit in Queensland has shown that the incidence of frost has become less frequent in the northern grains region. Rainfall is likely to decline, especially in Western Australia, where a steep reduction in rainfall and runoff has occurred since 1970. Work by CSIRO and the Department of Agriculture and Food in Western Australia (DAFWA) is providing the industry with a range of likely scenarios for climate change and its impacts both on the farm and across the industry.
Nitrous oxide emissions to the atmosphere represent 18 percent of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. In 2005-06, GRDCsupported work with the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting and the Victorian Department of Primary Industries developed some practical approaches to minimising nitrous oxide emissions. The efficient use of nitrogenous fertilisers represents a 'win-win' for both growers and the environment. Efficient fertiliser application means cost savings to growers and reduced emissions to the atmosphere.
Also during 2005-06, industry life-cycle assessment studies conducted by CSIRO and its partners and the Australian Greenhouse Office highlighted critical parts of the maize production chain that need attention in terms of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. These results build on work previously carried out on wheat production through Curtin University. While post-farm gate emissions are significant, much can be done on-farm to reduce emissions, and the GRDC will continue to provide graingrowers with evidence-based advice in this area.
Reducing the impact of herbicides through integrated weed management
One of the objectives of the GRDC strategy to invest in integrated weed management is a reduction in the quantity of herbicides being introduced to the environment. In a GRDCsupported research program conducted jointly by DAFWA and Charles Sturt University, weed researchers are exploring the feasibility of using the herbicidal effects of deleterious rhizobacteria to counter Australia's most costly cropping weed, annual ryegrass.
By the end of 2005-06, more than 100 bacterial isolates had been identified and were being screened for their ability to reduce annual ryegrass growth. If suitable candidates can be developed as commercially viable soil treatments, farmers will have another alternative to chemical herbicides, reducing impacts on the environment and enhancing the sustainability of farming systems.
Developing plant-based management of dryland salinity
Dr Tim Colmer from the Salinity CRC managed to cross a salt-tolerant weed with wheat, to produce the first real chance of growing grain on salt-affected land. Photo: Evan Collis
The GRDC has been a major investor in research to understand and quantify the causes of and potential solutions to dryland salinity. A significant component of this work has been done through a partnership with the CRC for Plant Based Management of Dryland Salinity.
Lucerne is a unique perennial legume in terms of its scale of application, flexibility and pattern of regional use in farming systems. A major feature of lucerne is its capacity to contribute to the management of dryland salinity. This capacity derives from the ability of lucerne's deep roots to use a high proportion of rainfall and the ability of the plant to respond to rainfall occurring outside the winter growing period.
Lucerne is currently grown across 3.2 million hectares, largely in the wheatbelt. A further 27 million hectares across the Australian landscape has potential for lucerne.
Work by the CRC and others has shown that if lucerne is to be integrated successfully in cropping systems growers will need to:
- maximise the use of the lucerne pasture phase and the benefits to livestock enterprises
- optimise the positive benefits flowing from the pasture phase to the subsequent crop
- manage the potential costs and impacts of lucerne on following crops
- manage additional workload and lifestyle preferences.
Lucerne is not adapted to the whole Australian landscape: some soils where salinity control or prevention needs to take place are either too acidic or too low in fertility for the use of lucerne. The CRC has had a major focus on the development of new perennial pasture species that tolerate acidic low-fertility soils.
In situations that are already saline, tolerances to salinity and waterlogging are also required. Species such as Lotus glaber have significant salinity and waterlogging tolerances. Work through the CRC is identifying the bases of these tolerances both for the potential use of lotus in pastures and to identify genes for these traits to speed up the development of new salt-tolerant varieties.
Salt tolerance in crops is also a focus of the CRC. Sea barley grass (Hordium marinum) is a distant relative of wheat. In a world-first, CRC scientists have been able to cross sea barley grass with wheat to enhance wheat's salt tolerance. The grain from the resultant cross is slightly smaller than wheat and does not have the qualities needed for bread or noodles but should be suitable as a feed grain.
The CRC is developing a range of options for the management of existing species and the development of new species for economic use to manage rising water tables and salinity. The options developed are already providing growers with tools to profitably prevent salinity and use land where salinity occurs.