SugarCane

The Impacts of the Sugar Cane Industry on the Great Barrier Reef

Sugar Cane in Australia

• Sugar is one of the most important Australian crops, with a gross production value exceeding $1 billion per year. The nation is the world's second largest exporter of raw sugar.
• Sugar cane was brought on the first British voyage to establish an Australian colony in 1788, but the first successful sugar cane plantation was not established until 1862.
• 95% of Australia's sugar production occurs in Queensland, the state bordering the Great Barrier Reef.

Impacts

• Runoff from sugar cane fields can be problematic
  • Pesticides like diuron, atrazine, hexazinone, and ametryn (all herbicides) have been found to enter waters draining to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon from areas where sugar cane agriculture is one of the dominant land-use types. The concentration of many pesticides downstream from sugar cane production sites has also been found to exceed the maximum concentrations outlined by various water quality guidelines and standards.
  • The use of some of these pesticides has increased because of an expansion in the total land area devoted to sugar cane between 1977 and 1996.
  • These pesticides produce observable effects in many corals after a few hours of exposure at the level of 1ppb, but pesticide runoff can be on the order of hundreds of kilograms per runoff event (typically lasting 3-5 days) and reefs are essentially under chronic exposure.
  • Sugar cane production can also cause excess suspended sediment and nutrient loads in runoff.

Mitigation Strategies/Solutions

• Strict government regulations and controls (2009)
  • Hasn’t really been strictly enforced, instead there has been more encouragement of voluntary programs to transition to more sustainable farming practices
  • Regulations haven't been taken up by every farmer and there has been no penalty for farmers who haven’t
  • Heavy subsidies for farmers who are switching to more sustainable practices

• Australian Government’s Reef Rescue Program in Queensland:
  • First phase of $200 million between government and farmers to reduce runoff from farms and improve water quality near coral reefs.
  • Under this program, farmers have created artificial wetlands in the middle of sugarcane fields, which traps runoff
  • Other initiatives: Underground Trickle Tape Irrigation, which allows plants to be given a more measured amount of water
    • More ability to capture and reuse runoff water

• Sugar Industry Reform Program (SIRP) 2004
  • promotes a long-term reform of the sugarcane industry, economically, socially and environmentally
  • 355 million allocated to things like business planning, sustainability grants and retraining
  • Regional Advisory Groups: help promote local reforms and helping to identify key problems/solutions within each region

• Project Catalyst
  • partnership between companies such as The Coca-Cola Foundation, and local sugarcane farmers.
  • Supports farmers by methods such as sharing information on new and innovative practices, water quality, farm economic viability and other things.
  • aims at reducing ecological footprint of sugarcane production on quality of freshwater by reducing amount of nitrogen and herbicides in runoff.<ref name="Game Changer">
  • Many different types of groups are involved, from family farms to large enterprises, regular meetings and events to bring farmers together. <ref name="Game Changer">
  • One example of a solution from this initiative is using soil mapping to identify zones of sugarcane plantations that can be managed differently, so some areas don’t need as much fertilizer as others. <ref name="Game Changer">
    • Has reduced the need for fertilizers in different areas. <ref name="Game Changer">

Outcomes

• Solutions such as Underground Trickle Tape Irrigation hasn't had an impact on profit or productivity
  • good farming practices increase each year
• Many people involved in the Game Changer program--large enterprises, small and large farms