SugarCane
From coraldigest
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.[1] The nation is the world's second largest exporter of raw sugar.[2]
- 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.[3]
- 95% of Australia's sugar production occurs in Queensland, the state bordering the Great Barrier Reef.[2]
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.[4]
- 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.[5]
- These pesticides produce observable effects in many corals after a few hours of exposure at the level of 0.1ppb, 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.[4]
- Sugar cane production can also cause excess suspended sediment and nutrient loads in runoff.[4]
Mitigation Strategies/Solutions
- In Queensland: First phase of $200 million Reef Rescue Program 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
- Other initiatives: Underground Trickle Tape Irrigation, which allows plants to be given a more measured amount of water
- Under this program, farmers have created artificial wetlands in the middle of sugarcane fields, which traps runoff
- Code of Practice for Sustainable Cane Growing in Queensland
- Smartcane BMP
- Riparian Management
- etc.,
- Riparian Management
Outcomes
- Solutions such as Underground Trickle Tape Irrigation hasn't had an impact on profit or productivity
- good farming practices increase each year
References
- ↑ About Australian crop industries. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.agriculture.gov.au/ag-farm-food/crops/about-crops
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sugar. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.agriculture.gov.au/ag-farm-food/crops/sugar
- ↑ The History of the Sugar Industry. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sugarmuseum.com.au/the-history-of-the-sugar-industry/
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lewis, S. E., Brodie, J. E., Bainbridge, Z. T., Rohde, K. W., Davis, A. M., Masters, B. L., Maughan, M., et al. (2009). Herbicides: A new threat to the Great Barrier Reef. Environmental Pollution, 157(8-9), 2470–2484. doi:doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2009.03.006
- ↑ Johnson, A. K. L., and Ebert, S. P. (2000). Quantifying inputs of pesticides to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park – a case study in the Herbert River catchment of north-east Queensland. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 41(7-12), 302–309