Sustainable Agriculture program – a three year agriculture extension program

The project has increased knowledge of best practice NRM through the delivery of information via:

48 one-on-one technical site visits provided by a qualified Senior Land Management Consultant and the Sustainable Agriculture Project Officer to determine soil constraints and provide recommended best practice NRM options to address issues.

14 small group workshops with a total of 399 participants on specific best practice NRM topics provided free to farmers (acid soils, soil carbon, wind erosion, Mallee seeps, multi species cover crops and pastures, summer cover crops, salinity and waterlogging).

4 larger forums on Regenerative Agriculture to disseminate information via expert speakers in their fields, targeted initially to local advisors, researchers and consultants (67 participants) to ensure local capacity and knowledge was built before reaching a wider farmer audience in the second forum (45 participants). Third forum had researches and farmers presenting around soil carbon and mixed species (25), with the final forum having a focus of soil microbiology and invertebrate in Regen Ag (24) with researcher presentations and farmers sharing experiences. Plus 2 smaller localised forums (Mallee seeps at Rudall, soil carbon at Minnipa) held with 37 attendees in total. Two acidity forums were held in Cleve (18) and Yallunda Flat (21) to discuss the results of the acidity monitoring programs, discussed re-liming, integration of pH mapping with pH Monitoring, and had a pHd student talking about her last research into liming and re-liming intervals.

Communications (social media, e-news) to raise awareness of best practice NRM across the region. The Farmers Connect e-newsletter is distributed to 548 people, the AIR EP e-newsletter distribution is 450 people. 2 newspaper articles in Stock Journal (circulation 9900), 1 newspaper article EP Advocate (circulation 2200), 2 interviews on SA Country hour, 1 article InGrain Magazine, 1 x television interview (Southern Cross).

Case studies of local farmers (12) that have tried and tested best practice NRM to support farmers thinking about adopting practices on their farms.

Mapping of individual property level Mallee seeps (2 properties) and providing recommended actions for addressing the issues.

Supporting farmers to be able to apply their knowledge (and learn more directly through experience) via a small grants program has enabled the establishment of 36 demonstration sites on their own properties, increasing the adoption of best practice NRM directly, as well increasing knowledge of 235 neighbouring farmers through 11 site visits to the demonstrations.

Unexpected or unintended (positive or negative) changes or other outcomes delivered by this project:

• Greater relationship and engagement between the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board and AIR EP and other grower groups.
• Increased capacity of grower group (AIR EP) through the employment of the Sustainable Agriculture Project Officer.
• Mallee seep project developed and implemented which has expanded the usefulness of Mallee seeps awareness raising activities.
• Dry saline land investigations undertaken, working with Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board - a project has subsequently been funded via the Future Drought Fund to address this growing issue.
• Created a resource of plant-based soil cover interventions across the region, which can be used as a starting information base for other interventions across the region.