Challenges : �
The most common suggestion for improving the Water Quality Grants was to increase the funding cap for individual projects , or increase the grant percentage ratio in approved project budgets . Increased funding was especially highlighted for installing recycling pits , which entail significant costs . A few partners working with sugarcane growers also voiced concerns in interviews that grants were not large enough to enable many growers to build recycling pits . However , it should be noted that for the majority of projects the grant amount was less than the cap , indicating that the funding amounts were suitable in most cases .
Lessons : �
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Helping landholders to source equipment and contractors : consider exploring options for supporting landholders to source suitable equipment and suppliers in making their sustainable practice changes . It is possible that suppliers and the wider industry are not yet well placed to support landholders to move away from conventional land management practices . Greater engagement with industry or assistance to identify specialist suppliers and contractors may help .
Communications with partners : continue to ensure that programme partners are kept updated about any project activities or changes and consider opportunities to systematically share feedback with local partners on the outcomes of projects which they have supported , for their own monitoring and learning purposes .
Introducing flexibility into Water Quality Grants : explore options for introducing an appropriate level of flexibility into Water Quality Grants , in response to the fact that over half of grants recipients reported challenges that often led to project budgets and timeframes being exceeded . Where timeframes cannot be altered , other barriers noted here could be potentially addressed to aid with implementation .
Targeting Water Quality Grants to maximise value addition : NQ Dry Tropics could further explore whether it is possible to maximise the ‘ added value ’ created by the grants by focusing on the water quality projects that are least likely to happen without this extra support . However , it is noted that this is very difficult to determine prior to funding .
Engaging training formats : training workshop formats where landholders could meet others and hear about their personal experiences with using sustainable practices , and seeing these first-hand in the field , seem to have been particularly popular . Training workshops that provided attendees with more general information about a particular issue or set of practices seemed to help raise awareness about the options available , but may have been less effective at enabling practice change .
The provision of extension : providing one-on-one support was a valuable addition in tailoring practices to individual situations . Some landholders commented that they were interested in receiving more tailored advice than is possible in a workshop setting in order to understand how they could adapt new practices to their specific situation .
More specifically , NQ Dry Tropics and DAF prepared a final report evaluating these activities ( Brown , 2016 ), including the results of surveys 27 farmers that received 37 Water Quality Grants . The surveys found that :
� Factors influencing practice change included saving time , quality of water leaving farm , increased profit , environmental outcomes , increased productivity and reduced input costs . All factors were considered ‘ very important ’ with ‘ quality of water leaving your farm ’ rating highest ( 89 per cent ) and “ saving time ” rating least ( 74 per cent ). All of the other factors rated consistently high ( 85 per cent ).
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Sixty percent of farmers observed no direct improvement in water quality , though substantiated that this was due to there being no water quality monitoring to validate improvement . On the other hand , 30 per cent of farmers identified that the implemented practice change had indirectly improved water quality such as by more strategic cultivation and retention of water on-farm . However in almost all cases , growers had no access to water monitoring equipment to be able to substantiate whether technology and farming practice change was having an effect on water quality .
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