Property Management Systems Initiative

The Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI) is committed to improving the profitability and sustainability of primary industries in partnership with industry and natural resource management (NRM) organisations and other State Government agencies.

Under its Property Management Systems Initiative (PSMI), DEEDI has approved projects for a range of sectors including:

dairy
sugarcane
horticulture
grains
nursery and garden
turf and flowers.

Officers have also been allocated to support the rollout of these projects and uptake of property management systems throughout Queensland.

A property management system (PMS) is an umbrella term for voluntary planning, monitoring and reporting processes at the enterprise scale using a systematic approach. This approach is based on a Plan, Do, Check, Review continuous improvement cycle, which is also consistent with international standards for quality assurance (QA), occupational health and safety (OH&S), food safety, and environmental management systems (EMS).

Primary producers can use this universal approach for a variety of purposes including:

strategic business planning and risk management
increasing the profitability of their business
demonstrating sustainability and environmental stewardship
applying information and technologies sourced from industry best management practice (BMP) programs
addressing the priorities of regional natural resource management bodies
demonstrating compliance with market standards and regulatory requirements.

The PMSI focuses industry effort at the property scale, but will be consistent with broader objectives at the industry, landscape, catchment/regional, state and national scales.

The PMSI is part of the State Government's Blueprint for the Bush, a 10-year plan to build a sustainable, liveable and prosperous rural Queensland. It also helps the State Government to meet its commitments under the memorandum of understanding with the Queensland Farmers´ Federation (QFF) on farm management systems (FMS), and the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan.

More information and examples of PMS approaches are available by downloading the Farm Management Systems framework booklet from the QFF website.

PMSI projects

In November 2006, industry organisations and regional natural resource management bodies interested in running a PMSI project were asked to submit expressions of interest (EOI). In December 2006, 34 applications were received and assessed. From these applications, 13 applicants were then invited to develop and submit full project proposals for funding consideration by DEEDI.