RRRD039 Progress Updates

November 2012

Science Summary:

-  Bioeconomic modeling for grazing shows benefits of A class practices, and for sugar of targeted fertilizer application.

-  Typology of why adoption works/does not for suite of key BMPs is available in draft form (and as a conference paper for the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Conference, February 2012).

-  Commenced comparative analysis of the data integration, aggregation and presentation approaches used elsewhere to identify which will best support farm/regional decisions.

-  Data collection logic complete and data collection workshops conducted between March and May 2012.

-  The following cost effectiveness estimates of pollutant reductions are complete:

• By BMPs (cane) and for a C to B transition (grazing)
• Across enterprise typology (cane and to lesser extent grazing)
• Across land types (grazing) and dominant soil(s) (cane)
• Identify key impediments to adoption including risk and uncertainty
• At a catchment scale (and smaller for grazing) that are notionally comparable across reef catchments.

 Progress Update:

-  Nine cost-effectiveness workshops with the sugar cane industry held in Wet Tropics, Burdekin Dry Tropics and Mackay Whitsunday regions (3 per region).

-  Focus cost-effectiveness workshops with grazing industry held and being cross-checked with Burdekin and Herbert region survey results.

-  Workshops with NRM groups and other key stakeholders to identify success stories/failures in BMP adoption (data collection and knowledge transfer) in progress.

-  Enterprise implications of BMP adoption in cane identified (Component 3, step 1). Basic enterprise diversity data ongoing describing impact of regional variability and transition costs.