The Fourth Environmental Assessment of the Australian Cotton Industry has revealed significant gains and pointed out areas for improvement.
- This Assessment—undertaken by global professional services company GHD—focused on sustainability at the request of Cotton Australia, the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC) and cotton’s Sustainability Working Group. It included a combination of desktop research, interviews with industry stakeholders, and visits to farms of all sizes.
- It found that the Australian cotton industry had delivered fully on four of the six recommendations in the 2012 Third Independent Environmental Assessment and has made significant progress on the other two.
- The assessment has also made 16 new recommendations which will be assessed in another ten years. The Australian cotton industry has accepted all 16 new recommendations, with all either currently being actioned or with strategic planning underway to inform the next steps.
THE HIGHLIGHTS: GHD’s on-farm observations rated close to 90% of the environmental criteria observed across all farms as ‘excellent’, ‘very good’ or ‘good’, rising to over 95% for myBMP-registered growers. GHD also observed the industry has sound processes in place to identify and respond to current and emerging environmental issues, through the implementation of cotton’s industry-wide sustainability framework: PLANET PEOPLE. PADDOCK.
- The report noted that water use and management has been an area of considerable industry research, development and extension (RD&E) investment which has resulted in demonstrable on-farm improvement over many years.
- The assessment found the industry had made continual progress in pest management with pesticide use significantly reduced and while herbicide use has increased, overall Environmental Toxic Load has ‘reduced dramatically’—a result of the industry’s significant investments in a multi-pronged approach to reduce pesticide use and resistance.
- GHD found that storage and handling of agrichemicals and petrochemicals, and waste management are areas where improvement is required across the industry. Cost was found to be the biggest barrier to growers improving their storage and handling, and the absence of municipal services was a major inhibitor to waste management.
- GHD observed that grower sentiment has changed with an increasing focus on carbon and emissions and urged a continuation of cross-sector work to establish indicators and targets for GHG emissions and carbon storage while identifying the need for more information for farmers on energy, emissions and climate change.
[‘myBMP’ is a voluntary farm and environmental management system which provides self-assessment mechanisms, practical tools and auditing processes to ensure that Australian cotton is produced according to best practice. The original BMP programme began in 1997 and was reviewed and redeveloped in 2006-07 with the new online ‘myBMP’ system re-launched in 2010.]
THE RECOMMENDATIONS: The report had made 16 recommendations:
- Continue to undertake updates to the existing myBMP website to ensure all information is current and weblinks and video content are accessible. Regular updates to continue to both the main website and module content to ensure information remains current.
- Continue to increase the transparency and consistency of reporting of the number of growers both registered and certified with the myBMP programme. This information should be available on the myBMP website or a publicly available platform as well as reported in the relevant annual publications eg the Better Cotton and Cotton Australia Annual Reports.
- Ensure a whole-of-industry commitment to increasing the uptake of myBMP certification. Consider new research into identifying real and perceived barriers to uptake.
- Evolution and possible transformation of the myBMP programme is required over time toward a performance-based tool that both adds value to participating farm businesses and provides clear outputs and data to support the implementation of the industry’s sustainability agenda.
- The sustainability framework and reporting process should continue to move toward science-based targets, acknowledging the difficulties of achieving ambitious targets in a complex system. The SWG has already undertaken considerable work in this area and should be encouraged to continue.
- Continue to work with the respective government agencies to include, where available, information on the status of water compliance in major cotton growing regions (e.g. number/size of breaches compared to total number of holdings) in industry sustainability reporting, as was flagged in the 2020 stakeholder consultation report on the setting of industry targets and indicators for the Australian cotton industry.
- Continue to support research and trial work that is underway to better understand the impacts of fish entrainment and encourage broader adoption by cotton growers and infrastructure operators of screening on irrigation pumps and/or other identified mitigation measures.
- Use regionally targeted approaches to increase the level of biosecurity planning to ensure sound biosecurity practices are in place on-farm. There is always room for improvement in this area to ensure that growers are prepared and have strategies already in place for any future outbreaks or incursions of new pests, weeds or diseases.
- Continue to work with the broader agricultural community to increase the understanding and awareness of off target spraying to minimise the potential for environmental impacts.
- Engage partner industries and service providers to aid improvement in on-farm storage, handling and waste practices.
- Undertake regionally targeted education and awareness campaigns to improve storage, handling and waste practices on farm. This should be supported by the industry’s broader extension and myBMP programmes.
- The SWG should undertake a materiality assessment of waste management to consider if targets and indicators, or other explicit reporting of industry performance in this area is required.
- Continue cross sector work to establish indicators and targets for biodiversity and soil, including continuing industry specific investigations on nitrogen use and links to emissions.
- Increase extension efforts to assist grower understanding and awareness of how they can increase their natural capital on farm.
- Continue cross sector work to establish indicators and targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon storage and ensure alignment with government policies and programmes on the establishment of agreed methodologies.
- There is a need for increased extension to growers in the area of energy, emissions and climate change. Due to the complex nature of climate change, carbon and GHG reporting, there is a role for industry to provide high-level information and share case studies and learnings amongst industry participants, with specialist, likely private sector, services required to offer growers more specific information to support on-farm decision making in respect to investment and/or market participation in this area.
WHAT THEY SAID:
There is a role for governments and scientific bodies in helping to fill the knowledge gap. The industry cannot on its own be responsible for climate information however it is pleasing to note that growers are concerned about the issues and want to take action. The cotton industry will respond positively and with a unified purpose to both improving on the areas identified and enhancing those areas where we are doing well. The changes won’t come overnight but they will happen, and we have the framework aligning internal and external stakeholders to ensure ongoing progress.
—Adam Kay
Chief Executive Officer
Cotton Australia
The cotton industry was the first agricultural industry to commission independent environmental assessments and that has continued every 10 years since 1991, along with an annual sustainability update which communicates progress towards our targeted outcomes and also highlights where we need to improve.
— Allan Williams
Executive Director
Cotton Research and Development Corporation
