VG00016 Environmental Performance

The public are increasingly aware of the importance and value of a clean environment for current and future generations.

As members of the community, vegetable growers are also aware of their dependence on the environment as they produce safe and sustainable crops for consumers.

This dependency has historically motivated growers to adopt practices that protect the environment.

Unfortunately, the technology available for vegetable production does not always meet the broader communities environmental expectations.

The Enviroveg program was developed as a simple self-assessment tool to minimise environmental impacts and promote effective environmental management within the vegetable industry.

The good agricultural practices included in the guidelines were given a simple score to help growers measure their progress and demonstrate their level of implementation.

Key Findings :

• The EnviroVeg guidelines have given growers a new perspective to everyday farm management practices.
  Growers consider their land, the buildings, the products used and many other issues from a new point of view.

  More specifically EnviroVeg assists farm businesses meet their environmental legal obligations, avoid unintended environmental effects and identifies opportunities to use resources more effectively.

• Improved irrigation scheduling techniques and monitoring tools were identified as providing an opportunity for growers to improve their environmental performance.

• The EnviroVeg self-assessment has proved to be a valuable way to increase grower awareness of environmental farm management practices.

• Where farming and the environment had previously been perceived as separate issues, the Enviroveg program has managed to present these issues as linked in a practical and commonsense way that is easily understood and used by vegetable growers.

• EnviroVeg has provided the vegetable industry with a forum in which all parties are able to discuss environmental issues and find solutions that meet the requirements of both growers and other industry stakeholders.

SEE ALSO :

VegetablesVictora – EnviroVeg page

AusVeg – EnviroVeg page

Acknowledgements :

AUSVEG and Horticulture Australia Limited are gratefully acknowledged for their financial support of this project.

The Vegetable Growers Association of Victoria are gratefully acknowledged for the management, support and promotion of the Enviroveg program.

Significant contributions from former Enviroveg project manager Patrick Ulloa are also gratefully acknowledged.

All industry stakeholders involved in the development of the Enviroveg guidelines and manual are gratefully acknowledged.

Thanks go to the Enviroveg Management Committee for all the feedback and ideas for future development of the program.

Thanks go to all growers who have become members of the program. Thanks also to Deborah Corrigan and Patrick Ulloa for helpful discussions and reviewing of this report.

This project was facilitated by Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL)
in partnership with AUSVEG through the National Vegetable Research and Development Levy.

The Australian Government provides matched funding for all HAL’s R&D activities.