Eleven organisations will share in more than $230,000 of grants from the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority’s Beyond Soilcare project to fund activities and events that promote soil health and sustainable farming.
Goulburn Broken CMA CEO Chris Norman said Beyond SoilCare staff worked with farmers and community and industry groups to promote understanding and adoption of farming practices that improved soil condition.
“We recognise that healthy soils are one of the keys to a productive, sustainable agriculture sector,” Mr Norman said.
“That’s why we continue to work closely with these groups to develop and test soil health approaches that help farmers adapt to changes in climate and water and land use.”
The groups and projects funded are:
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Group
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Project(s)
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Goulburn Murray Landcare Network
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Continuing to improve the uptake of sustainable farming practices in the GMLN - delivery of community education around soil health.
Growing farmer confidence with soil health knowledge - a series of workshops covering topics about improving farm productivity by understanding the importance of soil health and sustainable natural resource management.
Growing positive farming futures - build farmer knowledge and skills to manage their businesses and their farm’s natural resources productively and sustainably through holistic management principles.
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Irrigated Cropping Council
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The effect of compaction and amelioration in irrigated soils - investigate the effects of using agricultural machinery to apply subsoil ameliorants, and assess the effects on soil density and structure.
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GV Food Cooperative
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Reviving traditional SoilCare for a better GV land usage – work with local farmers wishing to engage in alternative farming practices.
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Maize Association of Australia
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Understanding soil properties and the relationship to maize yield variability – establish demonstration sites to determine what factors are driving maize yield variability and establish appropriate management responses.
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Australian Processing Tomato Research Council
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Role of compost on processing tomato production – establish trials to demonstrate potential benefits of applying compost to the centre of permanent sub-surface drip irrigation tomato beds.
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SESL Australia/Integrity Fruit
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Managing climate change impacts on perennial horticulture - establish trials looking at using compost to improve groundcover, soil health and plant health and how this can reduce the effects of extreme heat on fruit while improving soil condition and water use efficiency.
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Riverine Plains
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Refining deep soil nitrogen testing to reduce environmental losses - use on-farm demonstration sites to show the value of considering paddock variation when sampling for nitrogen.
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Gecko Clan
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Resilient Sustainable Agriculture – Strategic farming practices for soil, catchments, water and climate resilience - demonstrate strategic pasture sowing approaches and the value of water planning and management to improve resilience to climate change.
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South West Goulburn Landcare Network
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Strategic livestock husbandry to address tunnel erosion – investigate sustainable ways of increasing pasture density, grazing practices and the soil water holding capacity of tunnel-erosion prone sites.
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Warby Range Landcare Group
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Understanding Soils: The Next Step – Biology – build on previous work the group has done looking at the physical and chemical soil factors by investigating soil biology factors such as nutrient availability and water holding capacity.
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Euroa Arboretum
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Healthy Hectares – develop a booklet and run a series of workshops to provide practical information on managing small blocks productively and sustainably to meet the needs of the growing number of hobby farmers in the region.
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Beyond Soilcare is funded through the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme.
More information about how to get involved, or past Beyond Soilcare projects, is available here.