Building industry capacity through the nursery production farm management system 2012_2013 (NY12002)

This is a final research report from Hort Innovation’s historical archives. Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.

What was it all about?

This project aimed to drive greater engagement, recognition and adoption of the NPFMS across the production sector of the Australian nursery industry. The NPFMS included three key programs: Nursery Industry Accreditation Scheme, Australia (NIASA), EcoHort (Environmental Management System for the Australian production nursery industry) and BioSecure HACCP (on-farm biosecurity system for the Australian production nursery industry).

This project was segregated into ten interrelated sub project that formed the basis of an Annual Operating Plan (AOP) following a defined consultation process which involved regional Associations and levy payers which ensured the relevance of issues in relation to project needs and expectations, as well as alignment with the Nursery Industry 2010–2015 Strategic Plan.

The AOP was overseen by the National Accreditation & Certification Committee (NACC) which met twice during the project (5 December 2012 and 26/27 June 2013). This committee also provided input on future opportunities and challenges impacting growth and adoption of the NPFMS.

Several outcomes relating to sub projects within this project included:

• Maintenance and upgrade of the NIASA Audit Portal where data from audits associated with all three industry schemes under the NPFMS was housed (www.ngi.org.au)
• Update to NIASA Appendix – Suppliers of Growing Media and Growing Media Ingredients and development of a new NIASA Growing Media Checklist
• Update to the EcoHort Environmental Management System for the Australian production nursery industry Guidelines
• Development of online access to NIASA, EcoHort and BioSecure HACCP
  (http://fmsmanuals.ngia.com.au/login)
• Promotion of NPFMS at the 2013 International Plant Propagators Society (IPPS) and Nursery & Garden Industry Victors (NGIV) Conference, Melbourne, 15-19 May 2013 and Nursery & Garden Industry Western Australia (NGIWA) Conference, Perth, 25 June, 2013
• Development and execution of a NPFMS Heads of Agreement and update of the NIASA, EcoHort and BioSecure HACCP Terms and Conditions governance documents
• Development of an NPFMS Non-Exclusive International Licence Agreement between Nursery & Garden Industry Australia and Nursery & Garden Industry New Zealand
• Creation of NPFMS business resources including NPFMS metal signs, gate biosecurity signs and NPFMS certificates
• Facilitated an engagement campaign during Autumn/Winter 2013 targeting businesses not engaged with the NPFMS
• Provided training for interstate market access activities
• Developed case studies for publication in HortJournal through a partnership arrangement between NGIA and HortJournal.