National EcoVineyards Program

Summary

Objective

The objective of this project is to develop and implement a national adoption program to contribute to desired practice change outcomes, specifically:

• to increase the land area dedicated to enhancing functional biodiversity by 10 per cent, and
• to increase the use of vineyard cover crops and soil remediation practices by 10 per cent.

Background

Biodiversity in an agricultural landscape provides significant benefits to a grower and the community in general through a range of obvious and imperceptible actions, commonly known as ecosystem services.

In a vineyard context, these ecosystem services could include the predatory insects that feed on grapevine pests, or the improvement in soil health provided by groundcovers (cover crops) grown undervine or between the rows.

Research approach

The program has three elements:

1. design and development of a national adoption program
2. delivery and implementation of the program, and
3. curation of content to support the adoption program.

The delivery approach will involve:

1.  A national adoption program, developed in consultation with growers and key stakeholders, which also includes the following elements as a minimum:
   • an identification of risks, such as gaps in biodiversity and/or groundcover knowledge amongst growers and/or any other identified assumptions and whether they are critical for success of the program.
   • an evaluation component, and data collection to enable benchmarking against SWA data and KPIs 
2. Options for delivery models, and the mechanisms through which the delivery will be executed to optimise practice change, taking into consideration:
   • Regional execution: which may require a combination of national coordination and a model that enables content to be delivered locally at a regional level (i.e. identifying and engaging regional facilitators/knowledge brokers/regional experts)
   • Delivery options which consider at least the following:
     • location, type, frequency and expected duration of grower-facing activities
     • the role of traditional extension providers, such as state government agencies, grower groups, Wine Australia’s regional program partners, private consultants, researchers or other institutions
     • estimated cost of the various delivery models
     • ongoing mechanisms to support delivery beyond the Supply Period, including opportunities for alternative funding sources to complement or leverage Wine Australia’s investment to support the roll-out and ongoing content support for the resources, and
     • an evaluation mechanism for monitoring and adjusting the approach if necessary, and a plan for measuring practice change.
3. Collate existing best-practice resources (extension materials) to support the adoption program, which may require developing new content to fill gaps and/or updating existing materials, including but not limited to the following elements (this list is provided as examples only):
   • resources and tools for both grapegrowers and regional facilitators to support the delivery of the adoption program
   • reviewing the best use of, and updating, the current Cover Crop Finder (to support the adoption program)
   • tools to simplify selection of appropriate species to plant in and around the vineyard
   • science-based information regarding groundcovers and biodiversity as applied to viticulture
   • case studies of growers’ experiences captured as video and/or podcasts prior and during the project to develop awareness and build a groundswell of interest and action
   • relevant webinars, podcasts and videos
   • a seasonal calendar of messaging prompting action, promoting upcoming events and points of interest, and topical feeds for social media channels to stimulate interest and encourage grower participation.

Sector benefits

The need to grow resilience and future proof vineyard production in response to climate change and increasingly extreme weather events is a priority for the sector. Improved management and understanding of how functional biodiversity underpins the capacity to create better buffered production systems and address the breakdown in function of natural systems.