Little River Landcare Group

One successful project - Soil PET

Little River Landcare's Soil PET project was a successful soil extension project, recognised at a State Level winning the NSW Landcare Sustainable Agriculture award in 2024

Capacity to Deliver - LEP23-035_LRLG-01

The issue

There is a lack of soil knowledge extension in the Central West of NSW. Soils data collected through previous projects had been lost over time through changes in government departments, staff turnover and changes to data storage software. Little River Landcare understood this issue and formulated a partnership project that would target landholders to increase their understanding of soils, sustainability and production outcomes. Along with this extension, a partnership was put together with a number of government agencies, to ensure soils data captured throughout the program would not be lost. Data was digitally entered into the NSW Soils database using a program called eDirt.

The solution

Throughout the course of the project, Little River Landcare took over 1300 soil samples. 16 workshops were held, engaging over 260 land managers, on how to understand soil test results and what changes could be implemented to ameliorate these changes. The project had direct impact on more than 280,000ha across the Central West of NSW. 

Soil test results were digitally entered into the NSW Soils database using a program called eDirt. 1337 soil samples were analysed at a laboratory over the course of the project. The results were compiled along with field profile descriptions collected at 8 soil pit workshop sites across the Central West of NSW and entered into the database. The profile information was then made publicly available via eSPADE, a maps-based internet spatial viewer.

The impact

The Soil PET project has highlighted a huge gap in the extension of independent soil knowledge to landholders in the Central West of NSW. While this project has helped a significant number of landholders improve their soils understanding, there is demand for more. The project highlighted the benefit of utilizing landcare group networks as a way of contacting landholders who wanted to engage. It also was apparent that government agencies invested in soil research are looking for on ground networks (landcare groups) to partner with for the purposes of data collection and analysis. Little River Landcare partnership with DEECCW was mutually beneficial to test usability and relevance to land managers of their online soils data mechanisms.

Author: Phoebe Gulliver

Key facts

  • The Soil PET project helped address the lack of independant soils knowledge extension to land managers within the Central West of NSW.
  • More than 1300 soil samples were collected in the project and the results were uploaded to NSW Soils database and are publicly available via eSpade.
  • Over 260 landmanagers attended 16 soil pit workshops over the course of the project, with a direct influence on management outcomes of over 280,000ha.
  • Little River Landcare's Soil PET project was the winner of Landcare NSW Sustainable Agriculture award for 2024.

Project Partners