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PROJECT NUMBER • 2001-257
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Australian aquaculture - practical solutions to the triple bottom line - a national workshop

Federal and state legislation is increasingly demanding more stringent environmental controls on aquaculture activities and place the onus of proof for demonstrating environmental performance on the industry. In addition, regulation for and approval of aquaculture activities is increasingly...
ORGANISATION:
Agriculture Victoria
Environment

SEF Industry Development Subprogram: agricultural trials of a fish-based fertiliser (BioPhos) produced from Australian seafood processing wastes

Project number: 2002-250
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $543,784.00
Principal Investigator: Aravind Surapaneni
Organisation: Agriculture Victoria
Project start/end date: 30 Jan 2003 - 15 Sep 2007
Contact:
FRDC

Need

Fisheries by-catch and processing wastes are principally organic in nature and therefore can be classified as “organic wastes”. Today there are three major forces operating, which are in effect beginning to control the movement of organic wastes. These are (a) the need for waste minimisation, (b) opportunity to utilise the high nutrient value in waste materials, and (c) increasing barriers for the disposal of waste products (especially those rich in organic content) in waterways or landfills
There are significant benefits to the seafood industry if these criteria can be met. The relevance to the processing industry and minimisation of off-site impacts should be of prime concern when considering the criteria listed above. Some targets to achieve these criteria are:
- Lowering volumes of waste streams leaving the processing industry
- Seeking lower cost disposal options
- Opting for profitable alternatives through value adding
- Increasing public acceptance through adoption of environmentally friendly practices

As well as the above, major benefits to the agricultural industry (especially the organic sector) can also be achieved from the availability of fisher waste-based fertilisers.

These fertilizers have potential use in both conventional and organic agriculture. However, the growing organic sector is of particular interest due to the relative lack of suitable organic fertilizers.

Organic production is a growing industry in Australia. The dearth of effective and tested, nutrient rich products that could be certified as "organic" is recognised within this industry. Provision of successful and a proven certified organic fertilizer has the potential to lift yields from organic farms, in turn encouraging greater adoption of organic farming. There is a strong belief that fish waste-based fertilizers could be designated as “organic”.

Although organic fertiliser products from fishery wastes have been available in the market for considerable time, long-term field evaluation of these products have been scarce. Such evaluation is essential to further extend the current market availability for fish-based fertiliser products. Effective extension of the organic market is only possible by capturing the broadacre organic production market.
Trials with fish-based fertilisers need to be first evaluated in a glasshouse, under controlled conditions to study the short- and long-term availability of nutrients on several soil types and plant crops. Armed with this information, field trials in selected high intensity horticultural production areas need to be conducted to work out appropriate rates and methods of application. Any trials conducted should be aimed at building confidence within the farming community so that a greater adoption rate is assured. Field trials need to be conducted on farmer properties so that tangible benefits from products tested are visually and financially convincing to both the conventional and organic farmer.

To demonstrate ongoing and long-term benefits from application of fish-based organic fertilisers for conventional and organic farming production, any field trial should be conducted over at least two cropping cycles. In addition, several types of products available in the market should be tested against commercially available, traditional inorganic and other organic (e.g. Dynamic Lifter) fertiliser sources.

Objectives

1. Comparison of the agronomic effectiveness of BioPhos with superphosphate in tomato production.
2. Comparison of the agronomic effectiveness of BioPhos with superphosphate in the dryland pasture production.
3. Comparison of the agronomic effectiveness of BioPhos with superphosphate in the irrigated dairy industry.
4. Communication of the outcomes of the trials to agricultural industries.
5. Comparison of the agronomic effectiveness of Biophos with triple superphosphate in the irrigated dairy industry.
6. Semi quantification of water borne losses of soluble phosphorus in irrigation water for the two products.

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-74146-370-5
Author: Aravind Surapaneni
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 1995-032
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Age Composition of orange roughly in the eastern and southern management zones

Orange roughy is an important species in the South East Fishery (SEF). The main areas in the SEF where orange roughy fishing has occurred are a major spawning aggregation off the east coast of Tasmania (the Eastern Management Zone) during winter and on non-spawning summer aggregations of the...
ORGANISATION:
Agriculture Victoria
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 1994-148
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

The age composition of ling catches

Ling (Genypterus blacodes) catches are an increasing component of the South East Fishery. There is increasing pressure to raise the trawl sector TAC for ling and there has been a substantial increase in catch by the non-trawl sector, particularly line, which is currently unregulated. Despite the...
ORGANISATION:
Agriculture Victoria
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 1991-036
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Development of methods to age commercially important dories and oreos

Four species of dories (Family: Zeidae) and five species of oreos (Family: Oreosomatidae) are caught in the South East Fishery (SEF). John dory and mirror dory are included in the SEF quota sytem with Total Allowable Catches (TACs), in 1993, of 240 t and 800 t, respectively. Oreos, originally a...
ORGANISATION:
Agriculture Victoria
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