Climate, land & water

Western Australia’s agriculture sector needs access to productive soil and water resources for growth and profit. However, the sector must compete with increasing resource demands from all sectors of the community, and the pressures of a changing climate. The Agriculture and Food division of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development supports agriculture by providing long-term management solutions, practical risk management strategies and tools to maintain and improve resource conditions, to meet the needs of industry and stakeholders. Agriculture and Food is also pioneering soil and water investigation of the state’s undeveloped areas to establish new irrigated agricultural industries.

Articles

  • The aim of carbon farming is to sequester more carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as part of Australia's response to climate change.

  • Soil organic carbon (SOC) is inherently low in Western Australian soils – limited by climate and soil type – with some potential to increase through management.

  • Claying involves adding and incorporating clay-rich subsoil into water repellent topsoil to overcome the repellence.

  • Waterlogging causes significant reductions in plant growth in some years and some environments in the high rainfall (greater than 600 mm annual rainfall) areas of South West Western Australia.

  • Waterlogging is a common problem in the agricultural soils of south-west Western Australia in the wetter months of winter.

  • MySoil is a simple tool to identify soil types. Growers can use soil identification to improve soil management and reduce the impact of soil constraints.

  • If you are deep-ripping, ploughing or spading to remove subsurface compaction or another constraint, it is a good idea to incorporate lime in the same operation.

  • Confident identification of soil compaction to restrict crop or pasture growth uses diagnosis combining visual symptoms of plant, root and soil features.

  • Soil acidification is an inevitable and ongoing consequence of productive agriculture.

  • Liming to recover an acidic soil to an appropriate pH can result in significant production benefits, however a response to liming indicates that previous production has been lost due to an acidic t

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