Chris and Angela from the industry body’s natural resources and environment group teamed up with Matt Dolan and Damian Farrelly from NZGAP to get some progress on the acceptance of NZGAP as an industry audited self-management (IASM) scheme for environmental compliance.

HortNZ reported that the team made good strides in both areas as the issues/limitations of Overseer were acknowledged and a plan was developed to produce proxies based on crops planted, rotation, climate, soil and topography which growers will be able to use for making their nutrient budget. The resulting nitrogen leaching number can be used by ECAN for catchment accounting.

ECAN said that it is happy that NZGAP meets their criteria for IASM so we are working on developing a nationally applicable environmental add-on to NZGAP that meets Farm Environment Plan requirements, not just in ECAN but in all other regional councils also.

The team also met with the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Ministry for the Environment to discuss the potential of NZGAP to act as forerunner for national IASM schemes. If the system can be accepted at a national level then councils can have trust in the assurance of approved schemes.