Building farming systems resilience and future proofing the impacts of drought through accelerating the adoption of proven cost-effective and yield responsive soil and fertiliser management practices by farmers across southern Australia
The project focuses on accelerating adoption of proven soil resource management practices offering significant opportunity to build farming systems drought resilience, reduce yield variability, increase sustainability and profitability.
On Eyre Peninsula, the project is focussed on: Improving productivity of low rainfall problem sands with a reliable break crop (lentil) with soil amelioration on EP






Key take-home messages from the field demonstrations and extension activities
1. Soil Constraints and Lentil Production
• Lentils struggle in saline soils and benefit from precise sowing methods like on-row sowing.
• Deep ripping significantly improves pulse crop returns compared to cereals.
• Fertiliser placement is critical; MAP (lower salt index) is better for lentils on flats, while DAP suits cereals on sandhills.
2. Amelioration Techniques
• Deep ripping enhances soil structure but raises concerns about reduced ground cover and erosion.
• Spading and delving improve clay distribution and long-term productivity.
3. Nutrition and Testing
• Lentils require phosphorus (P) but no nitrogen (N). Tissue testing is essential for identifying nutrient deficiencies.
• Salinity tolerance varies by crop (for example, barley > wheat > lentils).
4. Agronomic and soil management
• Salinity significantly limits lentil establishment; management strategies like straw mulching improve results.
• On-row sowing increases germination rates due to better moisture retention and reduced salinity effects.
• Sequential crop selection post-amelioration (for example, cereals for soil cover, pulses for economic return) is essential.
Evaluation and Feedback
• Farmers reported gaining valuable insights into soil management and lentil production.
• Peer-to-peer knowledge sharing was evident, and participants expressed interest in adopting new practices.
• Engaging with agribusiness (such as Elders) to coordinate the groups was valuable. It brought in a cohort of farmers who may not have normally been involved in such group extension activities.
• Drought conditions impacted on the project. The late rainfall affected germination and biomass production.
Future opportunities
• Long-term (5-year) projects are necessary for sustained practice changes.
• Improved tools for mapping and VRT integration are required.
• There is a range of innovative tools for mapping complex soil types within paddocks (constrained flats, profitable loams/mid slopes, sands). Therefore, a training opportunity for agronomists and growers to show them how to use these tools (even if it’s just the ability to zone a paddock for monitoring purposes) would be a worthwhile initiative.
Conclusions
• This project emphasised the value of targeted soil management practices to improve the performance of producing lentils on sandy soils.
• The opportunity to transform sandy soils from challenging, often low-producing assets into highly productive soils was demonstrated, and this will provide further incentives for farmers to better manage such soil types.
• Through workshops, field trials, and collaborative efforts with agronomists, outcomes from the project will help foster sustainable practices and enhance regional agricultural resilience
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