4.1 Education
Program
The Education Program continues to inform farm
managers of environmental management issues important to the sustainability of
the area. LWMP options and Best Management Practices for improving water use
efficiency and environmental sustainability have again been presented to the
landholders to further develop their knowledge of how to improve farm
management.
A cotton seminar/field day was
held to provide a forum for supplying information and enabling informed
discussion on cotton growing. The day was not held specifically to promote
cotton. Cotton was chosen as an example
of an industry that is adopting new technology and that has put in place Best
Management Practices to improve its environmental performance. The developing
Narrow Row technology package will enable cotton cropping in this region. It is
interesting that the Narrow Row technology is similar agronomically to that
which was being developed for Coleambally 30 years ago.
A large take-up of cotton growing within the original CIA is
not anticipated. Economies of scale require relatively large blocks of cotton
cropping. The economic incentive for cotton is that it has a higher farm gate
return per megalitre than rice. With rising fuel prices increasing the cost of
bore pumping, cotton could therefore be seen as a viable alternative to rice
for the bore pumpers surrounding the CIA. CICL took the first step by bringing
together practical, experienced growers and industry representatives to provide
factual information to the community.
In 2000/2001 the summer Education Program was held
successfully with excellent attendances. However, the winter program was very
disappointing, with many of the units being cancelled. It appears there are two
reasons for the significant drop-off in the number of attendees:
- For
landholders to fully access the LWMP incentives they are required to have
completed the core units of the Education Program. The incentive for recycling is the most
attractive incentive to the landholders, but with the current four mm/ha
storage capacity requirement, the cost of complying is considered
uneconomic. Therefore the recycling incentive is not being distributed and
landholders do not have any immediate (financial) motivation to attend the
Education Program.
- Of
less importance is the fact that the landholders who are more inclined to
participate have completed the program or have nearly finished it. If the
recycling incentive could be provided to these landholders (which can not
be done at this stage), more landholders will be encouraged to participate
in the Education Program.
For 2000/2001, 22 presentations were attended by 326
participants, contributing to a total of 1,347 hours of participation. Twelve different units have been presented
over the past years. Table
4.1 and Table 4.2 show the attendance, core units and
additional special units that were presented, both in 2000/2001 and since the
inception of the program, respectively. It should be noted that there has been
a total attendance of 1,907 people, of which 1,601 were landholders, with a
total attendance time of 9,542 hours.
Table 4.1
Participation in the Education Program 2000/2001
Table 4.2
Participation since the commencement of the Education Program
Plate 4.1 Landholders and CICL staff attending a
presentation while on the Kerang salinity management trip
Table 4.3 shows the number of farms in each
region for which the Education Program has been completed and the number of
farms for which the landholder has completed one or more units. 266 farms (60
percent) have been represented in the 11 core units as shown in Figure
4.1, with 67 people having finished the course (representing 79
farms).
Table 4.3
Number of farms where Education Program has been completed or the
landholder has completed >1 unit
Figure 4.1 Farms represented in the Education Program
The Farrer Centre of CSU conducted a review of the Education
Program in 2000/2001. As a result of
this review one of the units was changed significantly and further units are
being developed. The Education Program
is a credit to all involved and has been very useful in increasing the
landholders’ understanding of the issues that affect their sustainability.
