The Western Australian Government is investing $29.2 million in research to help farmers across the State reach a new frontier in grain production by building climate resilience and profitability.
Together with $26.7 million from the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), the five-year Soil Water and Nutrition (SWAN) collaboration will unlock crop potential to use rainfall and soil nutrients more efficiently to boost grain yields and quality.
The initiative builds on research pioneered by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD).
This shows periodically loosening the soil and mixing in lime or gypsum improves crop water use efficiency resulting in up to a four-fold increase in grain yields.
DPIRD scientists will investigate how deeper soil improvement known as soil profile re-engineering coupled with tailored crop nutrition, crop rotation and agronomic management can achieve further gains.
Experiments across the Wheatbelt with growers will examine the use of mineral mulches to reduce evaporation and methods to overcome poor soil structure in Western Australia’s ancient soils.
“This visionary initiative between DPIRD and the GRDC will help future-proof our grains industry by improving water and nutrient use efficiency to produce more, higher quality grain even in the face of declining rainfall trends,” said Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis.
“DPIRD and WA farmers have been leaders in grains soils research, transforming crop production on poor quality soils and boosting crop profitability, soil quality and sustainability.
The collaboration will also explore crop nutrition strategies to be used alongside soil engineering to enhance grain production, such as improving the uptake of potassium fertiliser.
A suite of soil and crop management packages and field days will promote the research to farmers to help them adopt proven next generation farming practices for a drying climate.
