NSW Department of Primary Industries | CSU Homepage
4 September 2006
Graham Centre hosts stubble management workshop
The Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation hosted a workshop in July 2006 – "Assessing the benefits and costs of stubble retention for agriculture, the environment and human health".
Growing concerns over the impact of stubble burning on agriculture and the broader community prompted this workshop. The key objectives were to review and discuss current stubble management practices, to identify knowledge gaps, determine future research needs, and develop the outline for research proposal(s).
The workshop opened with representatives from agriculture, health, meteorology, the environment and local community providing updates of the current information available on grower practices, sowing equipment, impact on soils and water quality, meteorological conditions influencing air pollution levels and the impact of stubble burning on human health. Powerpoint slides of the presentations are available for downloading.
Also participating in the workshop were representatives from the NSW Department of Primary Industries, Charles Sturt University, the Bureau of Meteorology, Greater Murray Area Health Service, local government, the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee and Murray Catchment Management Authorities and farmer groups – ie. Riverine plains, Central West Conservation Farmers Association and Farmlink.
During the second half of the workshop, the participants broke into working groups. Collaboration between the diverse groups represented at the workshop created a unique opportunity to develop priority areas for joint research and extension projects. These included:
- New technologies and strategies for managing stubble
- Case studies to deliver uniform reporting across New South Wales/Australia on stubble burning or stubble retention
- A data collection network to establish benchmarks on burning or retention from which further monitoring and evaluation of projects can be driven
- To develop research into the health aspect of stubble burning at the local and regional level
- To develop a risk management tool to manage the problems resulting from no longer burning stubble
- Updating the ‘Stubble Retention Compendium’ as a Graham Centre technical bulletin.
The workshop proceedings include the information gaps identified by the working groups and further detail of the research and extension priority areas developed.
Harden area farmer, Neil McColl, explains potential areas of future extension and research work at the 'stubble retention versus stubble burning' workshop (Photo Simon Clarke).