NEWS
Media Release
Make Your Hectare Count (MYHC) #2 has well and truly launched, following successful funding through the Western Australian Government’s State NRM Program last year. RegenWA and the Lower Blackwood Catchment Land Conservation District Committee (LCDC) have partnered to deliver the second iteration of the original MYHC initiative, designed to provide WA’s small landholders with practical information and support to manage their properties. Funded for two years, this project will update and re-release the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Developments Small Landholder Information Service fact sheets, produce original information videos and webinars, conduct events for small landholders, and provide other tailored opportunities to increase land management knowledge.
The first event delivered through the new Make Your Hectare Count project was Whole Farm Planning in Toodyay. This event was predominantly attended by landholders who were reasonably new to the mechanisms that enable improved efficiency, productivity, and sustainability in tandem with one’s own context and values. With enterprises and interests ranging from food forestry to poultry, and a wide array of visions, all participants were brimming with passion and dedicated to responsible land stewardship. The most common feedback received from this event centred around attendees’ newfound confidence to appraise their property more holistically and strategically, in alignment with their own goals. When asked what their first action would be following the workshop, landholders mentioned going back to financial and context planning, drawing up new maps, and slowing down to properly consider what they’re trying to achieve and what their priorities are.
Lower Blackwood Catchment LCDC have been busy talking nutrient dense food and integrated pest management on their Talkin’ After Hours podcast. While Dan Kittredge highlighted the critical role soil health plays in nutritious food production, Dr. Anthony Rice elucidated the importance of insects in agriculture and ecosystems, stressing the need to find alternatives to detrimental pesticides.’
A series of videos is set to be filmed in July with Tim Thompson from the Farm Learning YouTube channel. Tim will be accompanying RegenWA staff to investigate vineyard cover crops in Albany, low-stress stock handling in Calingiri, an off-grid food forest in Toodyay, and plenty more interesting enterprises across the south-west!
Watch out for updates and opportunities across the RegenWA and Lower Blackwood Catchment LCDC websites, newsletters and socials, and stay up to date via the project webpage.
This project is supported by funding from the Western Australian Government’s State NRM Program.
-ENDS-
View the PDF version of the media release here.
