This is a summary of our agriculture guidance. Download the guide for more information. You can print the agriculture poster for your business.
The agriculture industry includes businesses involved in:
- cultivating crops
- propagating plants
- aquaculture
- raising livestock and poultry.
This includes:
- farmers of sheep, cattle, deer, chickens, turkeys, salmon, shellfish and other animals
- growers of turf, seedlings, plants, flowers, vegetables, fruit, nuts, grain and other crops.
Your legal obligations
The Environment Protection Act 2017(opens in a new window) establishes the legal framework for protecting human health and the environment in Victoria from pollution and waste.
Duties
The Act sets out 13 duties to protect human health and the environment. Duties apply to individuals and businesses.
The general environmental duty applies to any activity that creates a risk of harm to human health and the environment.
Other duties may also apply to your activities, including:
- duty to manage contaminated land
- duty to notify us of contaminated land
- duty to notify us of a notifiable incident
- duty to take action to respond to harm caused by a pollution incident
- unreasonable noise duty
- waste duties.
Regulations
The Environment Protection Regulations 2021(opens in a new window) support the Act to address some risks of harm that need further controls.
There may be specific requirements that apply to your activities under the Regulations – for example:
- noisy or smoky vehicles
- onsite wastewater management systems
- ozone depleting substances, like methyl bromide and chlorofluorocarbons
- plastic bags
- used packaging materials
- air pollutants that need to be reported to the National Pollutant Inventory.
Our agriculture guidance provides information on other relevant legislation and codes of practice that inform you how to manage your risks.
Permissions
Under the environment protection legislation, we issue permissions for some activities. These include licences, permits and registrations. Different types of permissions have different requirements.
Examples of activities relating to agriculture that require a permission include:
- transport of most types of reportable priority waste (either A10a, A10b or A12)
- A07a – Organic waste processing (large)
- A09b – Waste tyre storage (small)
- A14 – Reclaimed wastewater supply or use
- A20 – Onsite wastewater management systems
- A23 – Temporary storage (designated waste)
- B01a – Animal industries (waste solely to land)
- B01b – Animal industries (waste not solely to land)
- B02a – Livestock saleyards or holding pens (waste solely to land)
- B02b – Livestock saleyards or holding pens (waste not solely to land)
- B03 – Fish farms.
Compliance and enforcement
We:
- support businesses to comply with the law through guidance and education
- enforce the law if the environment or community is deliberately or negligently exposed to harm.
Our authorised officers visit businesses and premises to:
- conduct inspections
- provide advice
- assess compliance with the law and any specific permission conditions.
Local councils also have powers to enforce certain environmental laws.
Risk management
It's your responsibility to understand and manage the risk of harm to human health and the environment from pollution and waste from any work you do.
Use a risk management process to help you eliminate or reduce risks so far as reasonably practicable.
Common agriculture industry hazards
A hazard is something that can cause harm to human health and the environment, particularly if it’s not managed well.
As part of the risk management process, you must identify hazards and assess their risks.
Common hazards in the agriculture industry include:
- chemical storage and handling
- dust
- farm waste
- land and groundwater contamination
- noise
- odour
- waste tyres
- wastewater
- water pollution.
This is not a complete list, but it gives you an idea of some agriculture hazards that may impact human health and the environment. Every site is different and has a unique set of hazards and risks.
If you need more information to better understand hazards in your industry, sources of information include:
- Agriculture Victoria for information about the agriculture sector and its related industries
- CFA for fire management planning for farmers, landowners, plantation managers and bush block owners
- Department of Transport and Planning for information about Victoria’s planning system
- Local councils for information about building regulations and the Victorian planning schemes and what they mean for your operations
- Planet Ark for information about recycling, including assistance for small and medium businesses finding reuse and recycling services
- VicRoads for information about Victoria’s road regulatory framework
- WorkSafe Victoria for guidance and advice about health and safety at your workplace, including storing, handling and transporting dangerous goods and controlling exposure to crystalline silica.
Control measures
The controls you put in place depend on your business activities and hazards.
Check controls regularly to make sure that they’re working, well maintained and effective and that they remain the most appropriate option.
For more information about controls, download our agriculture guidance. You can use the action plan (Appendix A) as a template to list actions you can take to improve the way you control risks.
We also have some information about controls on our website:
Assess and minimise air pollution from your business
Control dust from your business
Control noise from your business
Control odour from your business
Manage an onsite wastewater management system
Manage and store combustible recyclable and waste materials
Manage contaminated land and groundwater
Manage electronic waste for reprocessing
Manage erosion and sediment from your business
Manage fire risk at your business
Minimise greenhouse gas emissions from your business
Industry example
This example shows you how to use the risk management process to manage effluent on a dairy farm.
Identify hazards and assess risks
Paula manages a small dairy farm. Paula follows and maintains a risk management process to help meet their obligations under the general environmental duty.
Paula identifies manure and effluent from the farm as a hazard. Activities like washing out dairy sheds, stock yards and equipment generate run-off, which contains effluent.
Effluent could significantly impact surface and groundwater quality, especially as the farm is near a river. Paula assesses that the health of people downstream could be affected if effluent is allowed to enter the river.
Put controls in place
Paula discusses with other dairy farmers and looks at industry information to help them consider what controls could prevent run-off from leaving their property.
Paula implements a system that captures effluent from the dairy shed, feedpads and calf sheds. The system is made up of solids traps, weeping walls and screens. It separates the solids and diverts the effluent to effluent ponds lined with clay.
Paula also:
- regularly cleans the separation system
- plants grasses that improve the structural integrity of the pond walls
- irrigates effluent to pasture during drier periods to use the nutrient content and reduce the volume of liquid effluent.
Captured effluent can be reused on the farm. However, Paula is careful not to apply the effluent over the same area. This avoids a build-up of nutrients that would contaminate the land. Paula keeps a diary and farm map to record the application of effluent.
Check controls
Paula regularly checks the controls, putting in additional or alternative controls if they’re not working as intended.
Paula checks the effluent ponds regularly to prevent seepage into groundwater and offensive odour emissions. This includes:
- checking for signs that effluent has leaked – for example, increased vegetation growth downstream
- making sure the effluent ponds are mixed and free of solids and debris to avoid blockages
- making sure the effluent ponds don’t overflow.
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