YOUR INDUSTRY
INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS SOUGHT FOR FARM ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PLANS Words by Rose Mannering
Empowering growers to complete their own Farm Environmental Management Plan (FEMP) through an industry assurance plan has been welcomed by Hawke’s Bay growers and regulators. Apatu Farms and Mr Apple took part in a NZGAP Environmental Management System (EMS) add-on as their farm plan solution. Apatu general manager Tim Agnew says going through the EMS self-assessment showed they were already meeting criteria. He welcomes the move to have an industry-wide system to reduce the cost of compliance. Apatu Farms were assisted through the process by Agrilink, which was a great way to start, he says. Using the NZGAP add-on will reduce duplication of the same information in multiple places. Meeting criteria on soil erosion and sediment loss was made easier by the fact most of the Apatu cropping land is flat, and they had already been accustomed to levelling paddocks and changing the contour to prevent pooling. “It includes practices to manage higher risk activities such as cultivating on slopes in the likes of Pukekohe. With flat paddocks it is easier to answer everything on soil erosion,” he says. Also, Apatu crop less in the winter, onions are their only winter crop, and meeting criteria is more difficult with winter crops. Developing wetlands and riparian plantings was already underway on their properties. The pilot programme is timely, with the government releasing its consultation document for freshwater farm plans and stock exclusion low slope maps in July. Growers and farmers are invited to provide their practical ideas to develop high-quality and workable freshwater farm plans. Growers have until September 12 to comment on the consultation document released by Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor and Minister for the Environment David Parker. Hawke’s Bay growers have had some experience with Farm Environmental Management Plans (FEMP) required in the Tukituki catchment since 2018.
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These Plans need to be revised every three years, so the first revision date was May 2021. Hawke’s Bay Regional Council manager – catchments policy implementation, Brendan Powell, says in 2018 their focus was getting the message out for people to have a FEMP, and that was achieved. “The point of doing them is for people to identify the environmental risks on-farm and have a plan to manage those risks,” he says. Ultimately that targeted collective action would improve water quality. To get those results for the catchment, the plans need to identify the right issues and be actively used and engaged with. “We know that FEMPs have improved baseline practices across farms in Tukituki; an example is the better winter grazing practices in the last couple of years.” Auditing the farm plans is the next important step and will be rolled out by the council in the next year.
Farm plans will be a national requirement for pastoral and arable farms over 20 hectares, and for horticulture over five hectares NZGAP EMS Farm plans will be a national requirement for pastoral and arable farms over 20 hectares, and for horticulture over five hectares. More detailed timelines, regulations, and design of how this will work are being developed, this is part of the reason for the consultation document. “A common message we hear from landowners is the desire to reduce duplication,” he says. Industry assurance programmes like the EMS can be recognised and adapted to meet the requirements of a FEMP. NZGAP manager Damien Farrelly says the add-on began as an environmental component to add onto the existing food safety aspects of NZGAP, and lately the scope has been expanded to cover the Farm Envionmental Management Plans.
