Advisory services

Advisory services are available in the areas of irrigation and water management, integrated pest management (IPM), composts, land use planning, soils, weeds, fruit and vegetable horticulture, urban agriculture, turf, pastures and flying fox control.

The Hawkesbury office offers extension services to farmers in the form of workshops, field days, farm walks, publications and ad hoc advice. 

A recent innovation is the use of bilingual officers to help service the district’s large population of culturally and linguistically diverse background farmers.  To date, these officers have worked with farmers of Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian and Arabic backgrounds predominantly in the areas of water management and chemical use.

Regulatory Services

The Department’s animal and plant regulatory services are available from the Richmond office. This includes management of animal and plant biosecurity and compliance issues. These officers also participate in natural disaster preparedness and response programs.