Background

The MIG has worked on a GRDC funded EMS pilot project from July 1, 2000. This project finished in December 2003.  The title was “Environmental Management Systems for Grain Growers in WA.  A practical on farm approach”.

The GRDC project saw the development of EMS guidelines, master lists and BMPs and saw 15 growers adopt an ISO14001 based EMS.

Objectives

In this project MIG tested the ability to effectively ‘roll’ EMS out amongst a large group of growers within one catchment.  Specifically the aims of the project were:

·          To streamline EMS and QA requirements with particular emphasis on efficiencies in monitoring, record keeping, training, communication, procedures and minimising paper work.

·          To develop innovative ways to better manage environmental hazards and also monitoring progress towards environmental targets.

·          To ensure the use of EMS on farm by developing and delivering practical auditing services and support mechanisms.

·          To market on farm environmental efforts by selling MIG branded ‘eco’ grain products.

·          To test whether EMS can be applied at a catchment level (i.e. Irwin Catchment with links to the Northern Agriculture Catchment Council) and achieve on-ground outcomes.

Activities

A working group was established to guide the project.  It consisted primarily of the MIG Environmental Division committee plus interested members from the previous GRDC EMS working group. MIG agreed to:

·          Work with a selection of quality assured growers to determine areas of system overlap and then include these in MIG EMS material (guidelines, master lists, recording templates, etc).

·          Ensure relevant researchers work with the working group and staff to determine the opportunities and then incorporate them into the EMS process.

·          Evaluate a range of auditing opportunities and then decide on which best suit the MIG requirements and also what the MIG expects to get from the auditing of growers. The chosen auditing process or processes will then be tested to determine ultimate effectiveness.  Under consideration will be self-auditing, peer auditing, auditing by local agronomists, auditing by SQF1000 QA auditor when conducting QA audit, etc.

·          Determine what support is required at a group level to ensure the continued use of EMS after funding has finished.

·          Continue to maintain the arrangement that has been put in place with WA grain marketer Premium Grain Handlers (PGH).  Under this arrangement suitable grain products will be identified, growers found, the grain grown and then products sold in bags with the MIG Brand attached.  The brand will need to be developed and what assurances a grower requires to use the brand, will also need to be determined (i.e. QA, certainly EMS, etc).

·          Work with the Northern Agriculture Catchments Council (NACC) to fit catchment and regional goals / targets into the EMS process.  These will be directly incorporated into the MIG EMS material (thus farmers implementing EMS) and also into existing EMS’s in place on members farms.

·          (As part of the auditing process) also collate records brought about by implementing an EMS and evaluate these against catchment targets / goals.  University of WA PhD student, Megan Farrelly will support the MIG in this area. Megan’s research is focusing on how to achieve integrated environmental management, with a particular focus on regional environmental management.

NB To achieve each of the above activities fully a key task was to run a series of implementation workshops for members followed by farm visits and then production of individual EMS documentation.  This was predicted to see 60 MIG members with an EMS by the end of the project.

Monitoring and Evaluation

·          Evaluate the effectiveness of EMS as a method / tool for bringing about environmental improvement within their region or industry.

·          Contribute to URS' overall evaluation of the EMS National Pilot Program as agreed through the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, including participation in periodic surveys of pilot participants and collection of data relating to time and resources spent in implementing EMS.

·          Attend and participate in the EMS Pilot Annual Forum.