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The Sustainable Industries Initiative project ‘Natural resource management delivery in the Australian Cotton industry’ was a joint project between the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC. The project was established to assist the cotton industry address a number of key NRM issues which are fundamental to the long term sustainability of the industry. The specific project objectives were to :

• Establish collaborative partnerships between Regional NRM Bodies and the Australian Cotton Industry for NRM outcomes.
• Develop, coordinate and enable the delivery of NRM outcomes through best management practice in land and water management.
• Develop and promote regionally adapted resources to improve growers’ knowledge and skills in NRM practices.
• Increase the adoption of practices that deliver on industry and catchment natural resource targets.

To achieve these objectives, the project has looked to engage with a range of industry and regional NRM bodies to implement projects that achieve both catchment and production benefits as well as increase the knowledge and capacity of growers, consultants and extension staff. The key activities the project has been involved in include:

1. The ‘Biodiversity in cotton landscapes’ project which was a collaboration between Namoi CMA, Greening Australia, Cotton CRC and the SII project. The project aimed to develop a 12 month extension project to provide practical advice to cotton growers and the broader community on the management of biodiversity within productive cotton systems. Each month, the calendar highlighted a biodiversity theme and provided helpful hints on managing for biodiversity, benefits for the grower and ideas to measure biodiversity outcomes. Accompanying the calendar was a series of fact sheets that provided a greater level of detail regarding those practices recommended on the calendar.

The project was considered to be highly successful and key outcomes from this project have included anecdotal evidence that growers have implement some of the recommended practices on their farm, incorporation of the biodiversity information generated from the project into the cotton industry’s BMP program, and the project being used as an example of best practice in NRM extension by DAFF.

2. The ‘Increased adoption of water use efficiency (WUE) best management practices in the Condamine Catchment’ project was established in conjunction with Condamine Alliance and delivered by Cotton Australia. The project aimed to link grower and consultant training to catchment body incentive funding to improve water use efficiency in the Condamine Catchment. Consultants received training so they could better advise their grower clients on how to improve water use efficiency and the incentive funding was made available for growers to pay for advice and implement on-farm changes which was also tied to the industry’s BMP program. Case studies evaluating the economic and environmental benefit of changed practices were undertaken.

Using this unique model, a total of 13 growers and 5 consultants completed the program and this led to a further 12% or 2344 hectares of land under irrigated cotton in the Condamine Catchment implementing best management practice in water application. The 13 participating growers successfully completed the Land and Water Module of the BMP program and, as part of that process, implemented action plans in response to identified risks or areas of concern.

3. The ‘Integrated Sustainability Initiative’ (ISI) project was a collaboration with the Border Rivers Food and Fibre (BRFF) organisation and aimed to provide growers with information and training in NRM with an emphasis on water quality monitoring and assessment in the Border Rivers catchments. The project was delivered by BRFF and also involved financial and technical support from the Border Rivers-Gwydir CMA. The project worked with growers to generate farm maps detailing soils, vegetation and biodiversity as part of farm management systems. Landholders were shown the significance of NRM in farm management systems, in particular, the Cotton BMP program. Using this cooperative approach, water quality data sets have been developed for the region and reports issued to landholders 6 monthly.

4. The CottonLinks Forums were an initiative of the SII Project and aimed to bring industry and regional NRM bodies together to discuss common NRM issues, receive project updates and examine future collaborative efforts. The forums were held 6 monthly and have created important links between the industry and regional NRM bodies. A key outcome from this activity has been the establishment of a working group representing both industry and regional NRM bodies to review the effectiveness of past collaborations with recommendations for future cooperation.  

5. The development of specific Catchment pages on the Cotton CRC website has been a key activity of the SII project. The Catchment pages highlights cotton production on a regional and catchment scale, while providing an easily accessible source of NRM information for growers, industry representatives, collaborative partners, students and the broader community. Collaboration with the SII Project on this key NRM extension mechanism has come from the Catchment Program Leader, Cotton Resource Centre Coordinator, Communications Officer, Environment Team and researchers. Additionally NRM Bodies and CMAs and research organisations have collaborated through the provision of information and links to their websites and Catchment plans. Since its development, the number of NRM documents being accessed has increased significantly.

 The success of these projects was broadly attributable to the provision of technical and financial resources by all participating organisations. As a result of the SII project partnerships and networks between the industry and regional NRM bodies were strengthened. The project has emphasised the need to integrate NRM with production to provide an effective mechanism for practical implementation and achievement of on-ground NRM outcomes. The independent evaluation of the SII Project evaluation found that the project has been an effective pilot of a number of extension approaches that can be used to improve NRM knowledge and skills, not only in the Cotton Industry but in other agricultural industries and the broader community.