Farmers' use of sustainable management practices

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This report presents the results from a survey of Australian broadacre farmers’ use of sustainable land management practices. The National Land and Water Resources Audit (NLWRA) commissioned ABARE to design and conduct a national survey to collect data on farmers’ adoption of specified natural resource management and business management practices.

An understanding of land managers’ willingness and capacity to adopt improved natural resource management (NRM) practices is important for policy and program-makers when developing and promoting NRM initiatives (NLWRA 2005; Nelson et al. 2006). Critical to this understanding are the social and economic dimensions underpinning land managers’ circumstances and decision-making.

Nelson et al. (2006) examined the socioeconomic data needs and priorities of government agencies and regional organisations with responsibility for NRM initiatives and proposed a conceptual framework for prioritising information requirements and data to be collected. This survey puts into practice many of the recommendations proposed by Nelson et al. and complements other work commissioned by the NLWRA through its socioeconomic work plan (NLWRA 2008a).