The “Building Resilient Soils in the Riverina Region of NSW” project is led by Charles Sturt University and funded by Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry grant number 4-GKWNP80. The Smart Farms Small Grants Program aims to help individuals and organisations across a wide range of food, fibre and forestry businesses across Australia to improve natural resource management to the benefit of the landscape, community, and economy. Smart Farms Small Grants Program has two key outcomes that are to be achieved through the activities funded; 1. Increased adoption of best practice sustainable agriculture, and 2. Increased capacity of land managers to adopt best practice sustainable agriculture.
The purpose of this project is to deliver outcomes under the National Soil Strategy that are consistent with the National Landcare Program. Extension activities will take action to improve soil health with evidence-based interventions. This will potentially assist the farming industry, working with stakeholders to improve soil management, leading to increased productivity and profitability, reduced off site impacts and help industry to reach the Ag2030 goal to grow agriculture to $100 billion by 2030.
The specific outreach activities will support land managers and farmers to understand the benefits of soil testing and fertility management. This technically innovative project website with social media presence supports evidence-based measures to train producers in soil sampling, monitoring, fertility assessment, nutrient cycling, organic matter, carbon capture, and soil biological diversity to better manage critical regional soil constraints. Current findings on crop and pasture rotation, residue management and soil amendment in the face of a changing climate are also featured.
