Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 7.3.
What makes a sustainable farmer?
Life on the land can be tough and it is perhaps harder now than it has ever been. A
lot has been written about sustainable agriculture, but not a lot about what makes
a sustainable farmer. Being a sustainable farmer means being flexible enough to take
opportunities arising from changing land-use objectives like those that may arise
with carbon-based and biodiversity-based market instruments.
Other changes may include a transition for some landholders from high input-
high output farming (e.g. production which relies on large amounts of fertiliser) to
low input-low output farming (e.g. grazing based on extensive areas of native pas-
ture). Other transitions may include careful consideration of the long-term future
and spatial location of stands of scattered paddock trees.
These kinds of possible changes in objectives may be difficult for some people
to comprehend given that it was not many decades ago that governments instructed
landholders to clear vast areas of land and add large quantities of fertiliser for pad-
dock improvement (e.g. in south-western Western Australia in the 1970s and 1980s).
Nevertheless, it is critically important for modern landholders to be aware of these
kinds of changes and take advantage of opportunities they create.
There can be major psychological benefits associated with good environmental
management which contribute to the sustainability of farming life. Many landowners
note that the greenery of tree plantings, listening to bird calls, or watching the recov-
ery of remnant vegetation along a once degraded creek, are the type of things that
inspire positive thinking when times are tough.
so that where the loss of paddock trees is unavoidable on one part of a farm, this
loss is more than compensated for by marked conservation improvement elsewhere
on the same farm.
13
This kind of whole-of-farm planning and offsetting, however,
needs very careful thinking to avoid perverse outcomes, such as improvements in
some woodland patches but significant environmental
degradation across the rest of a farm.
14
The use of prescribed fire is another kind of
management activity that is best guided by a whole-of-
farm plan. This is because: (1) an appropriate fire
regime is dependent on the objectives of burning (e.g.
controlling exotic plants versus promoting the
germination of particular native species); and (2) the
responses of biodiversity to fire are extremely variable
and complex - what benefits some species will be
highly detrimental to others. As a general rule of thumb, vegetation ecologists
recommend that the application of prescribed fire is most appropiate in woodlands
that have been historically burned.
15
In addition, a mosaic of burned and unburned
It is not possible to manage
for all things on every
hectare of a farm. Different
priorities will be appropriate
in different parts of a farm.
A farm plan is useful to help
determine which actions are
good ones in which places
