Soils

Western Australia’s agriculture sector needs access to quality soil that can sustain long-term productivity and growth. The department is leading the way in developing management practices to maximise soil productivity and minimise land degradation. The department also provides technical information on managing soil constraints, including acidity, water repellence, subsoil compaction, erosion along with nutrient management. We also support agriculture through soil and land condition monitoring, condition assessment and providing management strategies and tools to improve soil condition.

Articles

  • An evaporation basin is a natural salt lake or engineered earth structure designed to store and evaporate saline water.

  • To make sound decisions on managing saline sites, you need to know the source of salt, how salinisation is occurring, the landscape context, and most importantly, the actual salt concentration of t

  • Pumping of groundwater and disposal of saline effluent (reject water) from desalination is covered by regulations requiring owners or occupiers to notify the Commissioner of Soil and Land Conservat

  • Dryland salinity can be assessed on-farm by observation and/or measurement.

  • Salt is a natural component of land, water and ecological systems in Western Australia. Large areas of naturally saline land (primary salinity) were present before European settlement.

  • The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) completed a major analysis of groundwater trends in the agricultural areas of south-west Western Australia in 2014.

  • Rising groundwater is a major land degradation hazard in many areas of the South West Agricultural Region of Western Australia, and results in increased salinisation.