Sustainable Agriculture Waste Management: An ATC Case Study (PRM701)

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PRM701
Project Management Principle
Project name: Managing farm waste in agriculture
Student name:
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Table of Contents
Organization Background................................................................................................................3
Issues in organization......................................................................................................................3
Potential Projects.............................................................................................................................4
Chosen Project and Business Case..................................................................................................5
Risks, assumptions, and constraints.................................................................................................6
References:......................................................................................................................................8
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Organization Background
ATC (Australian Tree Corporation) is an owner of forested estate company located in Western
Australia and their main working is to produce and sell trees. Nearly 10,000 ha per year cycle of
tree crop has been harvested by the company and they plant, preserve and outsource all
fundamentals of the supply chain such as cutting, processing, and transport. The company is
providing services from last three years and since the formation, it is profitable and the efforts
made for acquiring the better experience results in fruitful outcomes. The main focus of the
company is on the genetics of the trees and also evaluating different species. The CEO of the
company is Charlie and business strategy manager is Stacy who is responsible to develop the
sustainable business plans. The company is facing some issues and to resolve this, they are
planning to work on better accountability to determine the growth of the trees and also on drones
for monitoring the growth and harvesting operations.
Issues in the organization
The company ATC is facing several issues such as initially the company was state-owned
organization but later the land is leased to the company as a diversified interest of the state in the
sector. This has brought legacy issues with the company and also the employees were dependent
on using the old technology and limited operations. The CEO of the company Charlie has
strategically stopped the production of the trees on some land due to not enough production and
this has created redundancies which have directly create an impact on the downstream
customers’ relationship. Initiating new contracts and business is also difficult for the company
ATC as the supply chain finds it as the same word supply. Another issue that the company is
facing is product accountability means there is currently no competencies or systems to
determine how much the trees have grown and how much they making estimates.
Due to natural disasters like associated wildfires and drought, cyclone, flooding, and damage to
trees due to the wind, and insect attack has killed and spoiled thousand of trees which cause a
problem as company has struggled to fulfill the targets. There is one more issue in the company
ATC which is dealing with the public who does not wish to cut down a single tree near their
living area. Due to this, the company is also losing its relations with the customer and
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downstream customers. It is also creating public pressure on the company and this year seems to
be worst for the company and they are struggling to survive.
Potential Projects
As the company is facing numerous issues and problems, so to address these problems there are
some potential projects that can be used.
1. Community-based agriculture conservation in Australia:
This project specifies that scenarios have been recognized as the possibly useful to address the
critical issues and community-based approach includes co-design for the natural resources with
the use of some tools. CBNRM (Community-based Natural Resource Management) is an
approach that includes visions, historical trends, throw-away models, scenarios, and problem co-
analysis helps in addressing the issues. Scenarios can be used to simulate the dialogue over
landscape sustainability and build broadly environmental planning (Rosemary et al. 2010).
2. Sustainable agriculture goods for livelihoods
Sustainable agriculture means seeking the resources, sustain farmers, and communities,
managing and preserving of natural resources by promoting the methods and practices of
farming which could bring profit to the communities. The main goal of sustainable agriculture is
an economic benefit, environmental health, and social equity. Sustainable agriculture helps in
developing forms of food manufacture that are economically feasible, socially and ecologically
sound (Rockström et al. 2017).
3. Community-based resource management in agriculture
CBNRM (Community -based natural resource management) means using and managing the
natural resources collectively in rural areas by a group of users with a distinct identity, self-
defined, and using mutually owned services. Its main aim is to provide technical and financial
assistance to the communities that connect themselves with the program in order to enable
themselves to achieve the objectives. It brings both financial and non-financial benefits to the
communities (Christo, 2018).
4. Managing farm waste in agriculture
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Waste management means disposing of all those things that one does not wish to do on the farm
and it reduces the waste products arise due to agricultural activities. By managing the farm
waste, the community can prevent long-term restriction or degradation of land which is using for
agriculture. Its main objective is to increase the monetary revenue form the waste resources and
preserve the acceptable environmental standards (Jacob, n.s.).
Chosen Project and Business Case
From the above discussed four projects, the project which is best suited for the company ATC
(Australia Trees Corporation) is ‘Managing Farm Waste in Agriculture’ because this can
address the issues and would bring benefits to the company. The farm waste in the company
ATC due to a natural disaster can be managed by the system called AWMS (Agriculture Waste
Management system) where all essential components are installed and managed to use and
control the agriculture products.
There are 6 basic functions of AWMS that can be implemented in the company ATC.
Figure 1: AWMS functions
(Source: Nollen, Darren & Jeffery, 2011)
Production is the function and nature of amount and agricultural waste produced by the
agricultural initiative. Since the company ATC loses its production due to natural calamities and
disasters, so the damaged trees can be produced again but the company needs to be complete
analysis including consistency, location, kind, volume, and timing when waste occurred. To
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determine all these analysis points, the company should maintain the records of data so that
calculations and assumptions can be made. Second is Collection that refers to the preliminary
capture and collecting of waste from the land which is damaged due to natural disasters. With the
AWMS plan, the company ATC can determine the collection method, it's scheduling,
requirements for the labors and equipment which are necessary, the cost for managing and
installing the components, and the impact on the reliability of the waste (Nollen, Darren &
Jeffery, 2011).
Third is Transfer which refers to the shifting and transportation of the waste from the land where
disaster happens to the storage area, treatment facility, and to the utilization sector. Next is
Storage which is impermanent containment of the waste, it is a tool that allows control over the
timing and scheduling of the system functions. With the help of waste management system, the
company ATC can identify the storage volume, storage period, estimated size, the cost for
managing and installing the components, and the impact on the reliability of the waste.
Treatment helps in reducing the pollution latent and can alter the physical characteristics of the
waste. Under this function, the plan includes an examination of the waste characteristics
following treatment, selection type, location, assessed size, and process cost. Last function and
process is Utilization which comprises of recycling and/or reuses of waste products (Nollen,
Darren & Jeffery, 2011).
The company ATC can implement this as they can collect the liquid waste, transfer it to the
storage area and then for the treatment, transfer it to the solid-liquid separator. Now, the solid
portion that has been separated should be transfer to another storage area for utilizing it or
additional treatment whereas the liquid portion should be applied to the crop land where the
company grows trees for supplying nutrients. Thus, in this way the company can re-use the waste
products and can reproduce it and again utilize it. For this, the company should make plans
including analysis of waste that needs to be moved, transfer methods, the distance among them,
scheduling and frequency, essential equipment that will be required, and cost that will be spent in
installing and managing during the whole procedure of transfer system.
Risks, assumptions, and constraints
Risks
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Though the AWMS (Agriculture Waste Management System) could address the issues of the
company ATC and bring potential benefits, it has some risks as well. Like, if the company will
not follow the procedure properly and does not manage it, then the waste that can occur due to
natural calamities, high wind or insect attack can pollute the whole environment and the nearby
areas. Due to this, users will also suffer and this could even worse their relationship with the
customer. Another major risk is that the waste products that are recycled and reproduced have a
short life and cannot have durable quality. The CEO and Business Strategy Manager of the
company has decided the budget of $10,000 to implement the project but with the waste
management system, there is a risk of exceeding the budget. Because it is the estimated budget
but the company cannot predict accurately how much time it will take to reproduce the waste and
how much resources will be used.
Assumptions
The assumptions made over this project Managing Farm Waste in Agriculture for the company
ATC is that the project will be accomplished under the estimated budget of $10,000. Another
assumption is that AWMS can help the company to reproduce the waste and hence enables them
to solve all the issues.
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References:
Christo, F. 2018, Community-based natural resource management, management of agricultural,
Forestry, and Fisheries Enterprises, 1.
Jacob, P. Agricultural Waste Management.
http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/af_bmp_wastemgt.pdf
Noller, H. Darren, H. and Jeffery, P. 2011, Agricultural Waste Management Systems, United
States Department of Agriculture.
Rosemary, H., Kristen, J. W., Petinal, L. P., Catherine, J. R., Allan, P. D., David A, W., Rowena,
A. G. & Tony, O. M. 2010, Adaptive community-based biodiversity conservation in Australia’s
tropical rainforests, Foundation for Environmental Conservation, 37(1), 73-82.
doi:10.1017/S0376892910000330
Rockström, J., Williams, J., Daily, G., Noble, A., Matthews, N., Gordon, L., Wetterstrand, H.,
DeClerck, F., Shah, M., Steduto, P. and de Fraiture, C., 2017. Sustainable intensification of
agriculture for human prosperity and global sustainability. Ambio, 46(1), pp.4-17.
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