1 October 2010:  Against the odds: Cane meets Govt ERMP demands

All sugarcane growers required by the Queensland Government to complete an Environmental Risk Management Plan (ERMP) have pulled out the stops and met the new reporting demands by deadline, reported peak sugarcane group CANEGROWERS today.


“While we do not believe for an instant that the additional paperwork for cane growers will achieve anything for industry or environment, the law is the law, and we have put resources where they are needed to help growers comply. We see this as part of our duty of care to our members,” says CANEGROWERS CEO Steve Greenwood.


He says this has been a particularly impressive effort for cane, as the 30 September deadline fell right in the middle of the sugarcane harvest – the busiest time for growers. “The crop cycle for cane is as inflexible as has been the governments on the deadline,” he said today.


CANEGROWERS reports that of the 600 sugarcane growers required to complete an ERMP, over 90% had already completed and submitted their first plan. All other growers, unable to meet the timeline due to circumstances beyond their control, had exercised their option to inform DERM and make arrangements for a later submission date.


In the lead up to the deadline, CANEGROWERS in the wet tropics has coordinated ERMP workshops and one-on-one meetings to assist growers complete their ERMPs.


Environmental Risk Management Plans were originally designed to be a property plan specifying management actions aimed at reducing the risk of sediment, fertiliser and chemicals leaving farms and entering the waters of the Great Barrier Reef. But CANEGROWERS says the process has meant the outcomes will fall far short.


“The real shame here is that farming has not been the winner today – the timeline did not allow growers the flexibility to constructively look at options for improving farm practices. If this was actually about improved outcomes, allowing suitable time for growers to look at their whole farming operation, without the pressure associated with harvest and plant, would have produced a better result all round.”


“By delivering the ERMPs growers have met their compliance obligations under the reef regulations. It now up to the government to accredit these documents,” said Greenwood today.


“But it’s important not to lose focus on the big picture here. As an industry, what we are really looking for is a tick from the community for the massive farm practice changes which have been implemented on cane farms across Australia over the past 20 years. These grass-roots changes are what really benefit the farm, the environment and the communities which have grown up around them. Our growers see themselves as guardians of some of the most beautiful parts of Australia and hope that one day soon, the community will too.”