VISION: The RGA ECP promotes the integration of environmental thinking into everyday farm management and decision-making, longer term farm strategic planning and the management of all non-farm aspects of the industry. MISSION: The RGA ECP utilises available resources to deliver sustainable financial, agronomic and natural resource management information covering the whole farming system to regional farmers.
The Ricegrowers' Association of Australia Environmental Champions Program was developed in the early 2000's. It is the delivery mechanism for the Australian rice industry’s environmental goals.
The Environmental Champions Program (ECP) was a very successful sustainability reporting program for the rice industry in the years 2002-2012. A range of factors including a lack of funding, drought and changes in how rice farm businesses operate has meant that the original cluster group model has become unworkable.
The rice industry now delivers a range of government funded environmental projects through the ECP network. Recently, these have included projects on stubble management, measuring greenhouse gas emissions, encouraging biodiversity in the home paddock, and protecting the endangered Australasian Bittern.
The ECP is delivered by the Ricegrowers' Association of Australia in conjunction with Rice Extension. More information about their projects can be found here.