FARMERS from all key agriculture industries across the state will have the chance to measure their on–farm carbon emissions and identify potential actions to manage and reduce them, thanks to the Victorian Government's On–Farm Emissions Action Plan Pilot Program.
The Victorian Government has commenced a pilot program as part of its commitment under the Agriculture Sector Emissions Reduction Pledge to provide practical information, tools and services to support farmers to understand and reduce emissions.
The program, which commenced in May last year, will work with up to 250 farm businesses to measure their on–farm emissions profile and identify potential actions to manage and reduce emissions while maintaining productivity and profitability.
Participants will then be eligible for grant funding from the Victorian Government to fund recommended actions from a total pool of up to $5 million.
The three–year pilot will be delivered over nine rounds covering Victoria's key agricultural industries – beginning with producers in the beef and dairy industries in 2022.
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Agriculture Victoria will work with a select number of producers who are interested in understanding and reducing their emissions, and are willing to help other farmers by sharing their learnings from the pilot.
On–farm emissions assessments and action plans will be delivered in collaboration with industry partners.
Agriculture Victoria will convene a new 'Community of Practice' for farm advisors to build capability across the sector and improve the emissions reduction advice being provided to Victorian farmers.
A new network of champions will also be established to support farm managers share information and insights from the program.
AgVic climate specialist, agriculture Graeme Anderson said so far 35 farmers in total across the beef and dairy industries have been working their way through farm action plans.
"The program seeks to find case study farms from each industry," he said.
"There's a current call for sheep and wool but we will also do grains, horticulture, poultry and pigs.
"The program is jumping in at the farm business level to better understand emissions numbers, carbon syncs and what solutions farmers have available to them to reduce emissions and we will share those learnings as we go.
"All sectors have been looking out how they can reduce emissions and we know along agriculture supply chains we want to know what they can do to reduce emissions and an important part of that is what's happening on farms.
"We're looking at what farmers can do now as well as solutions we'll need for the future so we can understand the issue."
Agriculture Victoria plans to facilitate regular opportunities to share information and insights from the Pilot with the wider agriculture sector.
Lessons from the program, including case studies, will be published on https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/climate–and–weather/policy–programs–action/on–farm–action–plan–pilot–program as they become available.
Farmers, farm advisors and others interested in the Pilot can email the team at actionplanpilot@agriculture.vic.gov.au.
