SAI Platform Australia continues to accelerate the transition to sustainable agriculture
24th September 2024
Throughout 2024, SAI Platform Australia has offered a wide range of events and networking opportunities for its members to learn and share knowledge about current issues surrounding sustainable agriculture.
A three-day field trip to Tasmania in May served to highlight the extended dry conditions challenging farmers in this part of Australia. There was a full programme including visits to a range of farms from small landholders to large properties with mixed operations, and a cropping research station. The trip provided an opportunity to see several very different approaches to regenerative agriculture and their contribution to drought resilience. Members were able to consider the role of nature within the farming operations and the visit to a high production dairy enterprise involved with research into reducing methane emissions allowed members to better understand the commercial investment made in this project by the parties involved.
Field trips held over the past three years have become a major feature of SAI Platform Australia membership as a significant opportunity for members to engage with each other and learn together about leading edge, practical developments. The interaction with farmers, researchers, natural resource management agencies, and voluntary conservation groups and the Q&As and discussions all contribute to members’ knowledge, enabling them to enhance their contribution to their organisation’s sustainability policies and practices.
SAI Platform Australia recently released a summary of the study we commissioned with Agriculture Innovation Australia (AIA) on the ‘State of Play for Regenerative Agriculture in Australia’. The research looked at the many initiatives in Australia already using the term ‘regenerative agriculture’ to understand the definitions, purpose, commonalities, and contradictions to help members of both organisations navigate the path forward. The research also considered the global perspective by including the Regenerating Together Framework developed by SAI Platform Global. An executive summary of the report is available on the SAI Platform Australia website.
The Australian Chapter is currently planning a one-day forum to be held in Canberra in October on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Actions across the supply chain. This will be a follow-up from a successful event held last year where participants benefitted from keynote speakers including academic and technical experts and presentations from industry bodies, government policy makers and food and fibre businesses. The 2024 forum will build on this event by providing updates, continuing the conversation and enabling all parties concerned with reducing emissions across the Australian agriculture sector to better understand what is being done by way of practice change, and the challenges to overcome.
The 6-week online MicroCertificate in Sustainable Sourcing in Food & Fibre that was co-developed by the Australian Chapter and the University of Melbourne was run for the sixth time in March. Since it commenced in 2022, this short course has provided more than 60 early and mid-career professionals with the opportunity to increase their understanding of sustainable supply chains.
Fore more details on SAI Platform Australia’s work, the 2023/24 SAI Platform Australia Annual Report is available on the Chapter’s website.