Farmers' feedback wanted on national sustainable ag standard

PUBLIC forums will be held across the country to get feedback about how a national sustainable standard for agriculture should be developed.

Run by the Australian Farm Institute (AFI), the forums are the first step in developing a scheme to reward farmers for managing biodiversity on their property through market-based mechanisms.

AFI executive director Richard Heath said all the evidence showed it was no viable to just say you're sustainable, you had to have the data to back it up.

"For Australian agriculture to take part in the growing sustainable business, we need numbers, metrics and evidence that we are sustainable," Mr Heath said.

"This is doing the groundwork, setting the scene for how the trial will be developed.

"We are looking at what's happening in this space internationally and in Australia. We're presenting all of this to anyone interested."

AFI wants to get opinions about how to make the trial "practical, achievable and doable to get the buy in it needs".

"We're asking what needs to be in any scheme to make it work, to make relevant on a global scale and relevant to Australian farmers," Mr Heath said.

Following the forums, a report will be published in July. A trial of the scheme is expected to be up and running by 2022.

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