SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL SERVICES
BEST PRACTICE SALINITY MANAGEMENT
|
During 2008 and 2009, Serve-Ag’s Sustainable Agricultural Services Group delivered a Best Practice Salinity Management Project in northern and southern Tasmania, funded by the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality through NRM North and NRM South. The project was developed to assist landholders identify saline areas and implement changes to land management practices which address soil salinity, in conjunction with crop productivity and sustainability.
The project engaged six groups of landholders with similar farming enterprises in the Coal River Valley, Northern and Southern Midlands and Longford / Cressy regions. |
Trials have shown that sowing salt-tolerant pasture species can reclaim salt effected land making them productive and minimising saline effected land
|
The landholders and industry field officers were involved in local on-ground demonstrations, information sharing and regular monitoring of salinity on their properties. This helped increase landholders’ understanding of salinity and allowed them to take action where problems existed.
What The Project Achieved
The project assisted landholders learn about and implement a range of natural resource management (NRM) activities tailored to their own farms, which help address salinity.
These included:
- Improving landholders’ understanding of local soil salinity, its causes, symptoms, and ramifications if left unchecked.
- Assisting landholders to choose the appropriate management practices to address salinity issues on their own land.
- Encouraging landholders to undertake activities which improve soil health to increase overall farm productivity and reduce water table recharge.
|
Agricultural production has changed the use and flow of water in the landscape, affecting salt expression at the soil surface |
|
Co-ordinating Our Efforts
Serve-Ag worked alongside Agricultural Resource Management (ARM), Armstrong Agricultural Services, NRM North, NRM South, Private Forests Tasmania (PFT), and Department of Primary Industries and Water (DPIW) to deliver this project. |
|
|
This co-operation allowed co-ordination between the various different projects funded by the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality, preventing doubling up of information extension throughout the state, and avoiding confusion amongst participants of the different projects underway.
Where It Will Happen
All activities occured within the National Action Plan region, as illustrated. |
 |
|
Sea Barley Grass is a common indicator of salinity
|
What Were The Project Outcomes?
|
|
