Addressing rural diffuse pollution in peri-urban agricultural catchments using the FarmFLOW framework: a study in the Pumicestone catchment

Abstract

Diffuse pollution from agriculture is a major threat to downstream aquatic ecosystems in Australia. Integrated catchment management approaches in Queensland in the 1990s failed to alter farm practices to address this pollution. Action research was used to develop and implement a novel approach to peri-urban agricultural catchment management. The project developed and refined the FarmFLOW framework, which is an area-wide adaptive management approach to extension, specifically for high-value but high-risk peri-urban agricultural catchments that feature a diverse mix of land uses. Over four years, the project achieved its target of 30 per cent of producers adopting all the recommended best management practices. Further, over eighty percent of producers commenced a process of continuous improvement in their adoption of at least some new practices that reduce off-site movement of nutrients of concern by 2011. The project has demonstrated social and economic benefits to producers and a consequent reduction in risk of chronic algal blooms (Lyngbya majuscula) in receiving waters. Based on network and integrated catchment management theory, the project has created a hub for research, development and extension, while achieving industry development and natural resource management objectives.

Keywords:

• agriculture
• peri-urban
• catchment management
• rural diffuse pollution
• extension
• sustainability

Notes

1. FMS in Queensland are a voluntary management approach used by farmers to manage their enterprise (i.e. a way of doing business based on the steps of plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle of continuous improvement). The approach focuses on identifying and managing risks/opportunities, implementing best practice and reviewing performance against set targets/benchmarks. Environmental management systems also use the PDCA cycle to improve continuously the environmental performance of a farm, but are generally more rigorous than FMS as they can be used to demonstrate compliance with the environmental requirements of regulators and supply chains.