GPSA sustainability survey shows practices already in place on-farm

Grain Producers SA conducted the inaugural South Australian Grain Industry Environmental Sustainability Baseline survey, with responses from 120 producers across the state.

GPSA chief executive officer Brad Perry said the initial survey - conducted in 2022, to be followed up annually - was an important step in looking at how South Australian grain producers are approaching environmental sustainability on-farm.

More than 85 per cent of respondents are already taking action on environmental sustainability, while 55pc consider it a critical issue for the grains industry and 48pc see it as critical to maintaining market access in the next five years.

"Consumers, financiers, and markets through the global supply chain are increasingly demanding more sustainable grain and as the peak representative body for South Australian grain producers, we want to be able to better understand where we can provide education and support for producers to take advantage of these demands," Mr Perry said.

The survey also found 43pc of the farmers, which also counted livestock producers among the grain, legume, seed and oilseed growers, were already required to have sustainability accreditation for market access.

Mr Perry said while there were accreditation schemes available for growers wanting access to the European canola and barley market, GPSA intended to use this grower survey to baseline the state on initiatives such as emission reductions, inputs such as fertiliser and pesticides and other key issues.

There was less confidence about the potential of carbon farming, with 35pc of respondents saying they do not see it as an important opportunity, compared with 24pc that do and 41pc were unsure of the opportunity.

"Only 6pc of those surveyed are using remote sensing to make application decisions, meaning that this is a big opportunity for more technology adoption to increase productivity," Mr Perry said.

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Of the sustainable practices already in place, planting legumes was used by more than half the respondents, with 44pc considering access to genetically modified crops as important to achieving sustainability objectives.

No-till or stubble retention, rotations and precision farming were also popular among respondents.

When it comes to soil and crop nutrition, 15 per cent of respondents said they are using split nitrogen applications and 12 per cent are using soil analysis to optimise nutrient application.

Plastic waste reduction was another important area, with 30pc actively reducing their plastic waste and 61pc using DrumMUSTER.

Mr Perry said as well as providing support to growers, there were opportunities for GPSA to share the positive news already being done in the sustainability space.