Farming businesses in sectors ranging from horticulture to dairy and grains have participated in a new state government scheme designed to promote the certification of sustainable practices.
Farming businesses in sectors ranging from horticulture to dairy and grains have participated in a new state government scheme designed to promote the certification of sustainable practices.
The participants in the farming for the future project include Kailis Organic Olive Groves, which has planted 320,000 olive trees on 1,000 hectares using sustainable, organic farming practices.
Managing director Mark Kailis strongly believes all food producers will need to lift their standards if they want to maintain access to international markets.
“There is just no other future,” Mr Kailis said.
“If you are not involved in certification of sustainable practices, you should get out of the food industry.”
Another participant with a more traditional agricultural background was Baldivis vegetable grower David Anderson, whose family has been operating in the industry for 50 years.
Mr Anderson said the WA initiative, which includes a self-assessment tool to help farmers assess the sustainability of their farm practices, complemented similar schemes developed in the horticultural industry in other states.
The upside for Mr Anderson is the family business will for the first time be able to document and certify what have become standard business practices.
Agriculture and food minister Kim Chance applauded the agricultural sector for working together to put WA at the world’s forefront in sustainable agriculture.
He said the self-assessment tool would provide farmers with an opportunity to demonstrate sustainability to discerning overseas markets in the future.
WA farm businesses exported up to 85 per cent of their output and therefore needed to be attuned to changing standards in international markets.
“I started to realise the time would come, possibly as soon as a decade, that we wouldn’t be able to sell a lot of the product that we grow into more demanding markets, unless we could show that our production of a tonne of wheat didn’t cost us 15 tonnes of top soil, and that the dairy industry didn’t pollute our rivers and streams and that our production of vegetables didn’t involve the use of unsustainable chemical practices,” Mr Chance said.
The minister said it was important to recognise the many farmers who used the state’s natural resources productively and responsibly.
“Producers who demonstrate their use of sustainable practices as a normal part of farm business lead the way for others to follow in their footsteps,” he said.
Mr Kailis said he was enthusiastic about the prospects for his business, which has partnered with managed investment company Great Southern Plantations to raise funds for expansion.
He said Great Southern had committed to expand the company’s organic olive groves to one million trees.
Mr Kailis likened the emerging awareness of sustainable farming practices to the earlier development of fisheries management schemes.
