Make Cotton Sustainable

REPORT / MYBMP.COM

BMP Lessons from Down Under Now Going Online
The Australian cotton industry over the past two decades has engaged in a transformation to sustainable production and environmental management system that has changed the way cotton is grown in Australia. Now, Cotton BMP is going online with myBMP that will enable the industry to access resources online. The myBMP web site is currently being developed for introduction at the Cotton Conference in August 2010, according to a report based on myBMP.com.

myBMP is a web based system that provides the latest scientific information and knowledge directly to the farm – acting as a one stop shop for the industry.  It does this by linking supporting knowledge, information, and resources to best practice principles and guidelines, allowing growers, ginners & classers immediate access to cutting edge research and industry information as well as industry and extension staff when they have an issue to solve or investigate.

Cotton BMP is a grower-driven environmental management program which has transformed the way cotton is grown in Australia. Over the past 10 years, the cotton industry has proactively managed its actions and risks through the implementation of BMP. Adoption of the Cotton BMP has delivered a sustainable cotton industry which is regarded as maintaining best practices and as a model for change by other sectors of Australian agriculture.

The industry embraced the BMP program with about 60 percent of Australian cotton being grown on BMP-accredited farms and 96 percent of growers seeing BMP as essential to their future. BMP was delivered to growers via a BMP manual and implemented on farm with assistance from industry extension staff, Cotton Australia personnel and cotton consultants.

BMP, in conjunction with the introduction of biotechnology, led to an 85 percent reduction in the use of pesticides on cotton farms and residues found in river systems in cotton growing regions. It also had a direct impact on grower operations by helping to improve water use efficiency and overall profitability.

While the BMP system managed to completely transform the entire cotton industry, the past several years saw a growing recognition of the need to update and expand the scope of the existing module content, but also to find a means to improve the delivery and execution of the program. Over the past two years, the industry has been engaged in a process to completely reinvent BMP - myBMP is the result.

For a grower, myBMP provides the opportunity to self assess their business performance in areas that align with farm business priorities, and compare performance against regional, state and industry performance in key areas.  Growers are able to choose their level of involvement in the programme. Some growers may wish to complete those practices which represent the legal requirements of their operation, others may wish to focus on certain areas in which they wish to improve – myBMP is structured to allow each individual to be involved as they want to be. For those growers wishing to gain myBMP accreditation, a certification programme is available, with a redesigned auditing and assessment structure. Further to this, myBMP also includes two further levels of practices giving growers access to the latest cutting edge information, allowing them to begin to implement or just prepare for those practices that will be considered best practice within the next five and ten years.

In recognition of the importance of best practice along the value chain, the Classing and Ginning sectors of the industry have developed their own BMP Programs in recent years.  These have also been included in myBMP, with classers and ginners able to track their performance over time against their set of best practice guidelines.