![The EU is an important market for Australian canola. Photo by Gregor Heard. The EU is an important market for Australian canola. Photo by Gregor Heard.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/5Q2j7ezUfQBfUJsaqK3gfB/da6fa289-cf18-4bfc-b2e1-db3ef68d03f1.jpg/r0_267_5232_3220_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Sustainable Grain Australia, the entity set up to help administer International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) accreditation for Australian growers, is continuing to push for exemptions in terms of rules regarding aerial spraying.
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Tough aerial spraying requirements, particularly in regards to spraying near waterways, make it virtually impossible for Australian canola producers looking to access the lucrative European Union (EU) market to aerially spray.
While the bulk of canola pesticide is applied terrestrially there is an important niche for aerial spraying, both over large scale holdings and in areas where trafficability is an issue.
Rosemary Richards, chair of SGA, who has been involved in the sustainability accreditation process through roles with the Australian Oilseeds Federation, said overall the ISCC accreditation was the most suitable and had critical market acceptance from the EU but added it was prescriptive in the way it worked, particularly in relation to buffer zones around water ways.
Speaking during a Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) webinar this week Ms Richards said unlike requirements with Australia's chemical regulator, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) the ISCC had a blanket 500 metre buffer zone.
This is problematic in definition in Australian conditions, where there are many nominal lakes or waterways that only fill ephemerally.
Ms Richards said in Western Australia CBH, which is running a separate overarching program to participate in ISCC to SGA, had won an exemption for salt pans and farm dams, where they successfully argued the water bodies were not permanent.
"This is something we are looking to try and do on the east coast, but obviously a lot of canola producing areas are wetter so it might not be as easy to argue the definition of what constitutes a waterway."
"The real point of the rule is to prevent run-off into other areas, and we are currently working with academics to try and find some common ground regarding the definitions of a waterway."