GLOSSARY
Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC)
A classification of industry produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the New Zealand Department of Statistics for use in the collection and publication of statistics in the two countries. ANZSIC 2006 was used in this publication.
Barriers to Natural Resource Management
Circumstances which impact on the extent to which landholders undertake improvements to their natural resource management practices. Typical barriers include lack of financial resources, lack of time, lack of incentives, age and/or ill health, and insufficient or inadequate information.
Biological control
The practice or process by which an undesirable organism is controlled by means of another (beneficial) organism.
Dryland Salinity
Salinity that results when groundwater (and the salts it contains) rises to the soil surface. It is largely the consequence of the clearing of deep-rooted native vegetation for rain-fed crop and pasture production. cf. Irrigation salinity.
Earthworks
Operations involved in moving, loosening, depositing, shaping, compacting and stabilising soil and rock. It includes operations associated with levees/banks, shallow open drains, deep open drains and subsurface drains.
Erosion
The wearing away of land or soil by the action of wind, water, or ice.
Estimated value of agricultural operations (EVAO)
An estimation of the value of agricultural activity undertaken by an agricultural business. Three-year average weighted prices are applied to livestock turnoff and livestock numbers on the farm, and to area and production data for crops. The resultant aggregation of these commodity values is the EVAO. It is not an indicator of the value of receipts of individual farms but rather an indicator of the extent of agricultural activity.
Farm sustainability
Considers the environmental, social and financial issues affecting an agricultural business. Environmental issues include resource condition, resource use efficiency and management of resources. Social issues are concerned with the wellbeing of the business from a personal, staff and community perspective. Financial issues consider the profitability, financial efficiency and resilience of financial resources.
Herbicide
Chemical substances or living organisms (called bioherbicides) used to kill or control vegetation such as brush, weeds, and competing or undesirable trees.
Improved pasture
Land where activities have been undertaken to promote the growth of pasture species. These activities usually include reseeding and application of fertiliser.
Irrigation salinity
A form of salinity resulting from the increasing build-up of salts in irrigated soils. It results from raised water table levels that bring soil salts to the upper levels of the soil profile, as well as the repeated use of saline river water or bore water for irrigation. cf. Dryland salinity.
Native vegetation
Any indigenous plant community, either naturally occurring or regenerated with human assistance. Native vegetation covers a range of vegetation types, including forests, woodlands, scrub, native grasslands, wetlands, and remnant and regrowth. It excludes commercial plantations.
Natural Resource Management regions
Fifty-seven regions identified across Australia for the purposes of addressing natural resource management and sustainable agriculture priorities. The boundaries for each region have been established by agreement between the Australian Government, and State and Territory Governments. A map outlining the specific NRM regions used in this publication is provided in the Appendix. Data at the NRM region level is as per the boundary specifications of August 2005. For the purposes of this publication, the ACT region has been combined with the Murrumbidgee region, the SA Arid Lands region with the Alinytjata Wilurara region, and Cape York-Northern Gulf region with the Northern Gulf region. Recent changes to NRM region boundaries combined Border Rivers and Maranoa Balonne NRM regions in Queensland. These are however treated as 2 distinct regions in this publication.
Natural Resource Management (NRM)
Management of our natural resources - land, soil, native vegetation, biodiversity and water.
Pest
A noxious, destructive or troublesome animal or insect.
Pesticide
Any substance or mixture of substances intended for killing, controlling, or managing insects, rodents, fungi, weeds, and other forms of plant or animal life that are considered to be pests. Herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and rodenticides are all pesticides. In this publication, herbicides are treated separately, and not included as pesticides.
Salinity
Soil salinity is the presence of concentrations of salt in the soil profile and can be a form of land degradation. See Dryland salinity and Irrigation salinity.
Soil acidity
An important soil chemical characteristic that influences plant growth, soil microbial activity, and the physical structure of the soil. Land affected by soil acidity is land where the surface soil pH is less than pH 5.5.
Soil compaction
Reduction of the total pore space in soil, resulting from applied loads, vibration or pressure. Compacted soil retains less water and resists root penetration.
Soil sodicity
The build up of sodium in the soil resulting in poor water infiltration, surface crusting, erosion and water-logging.
Surface waterlogging
The lowering of land productivity through the rise in ground-water close to the soil surface. Soil is waterlogged when it is saturated with water, causing air to be displaced from soil pores to the point that there is not enough oxygen for full root activity.
Weed
A plant that interferes with the management objectives at a particular location. It is a plant growing where it is not wanted. Weeds may damage crops or poison livestock when growing in pasture.
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