Rebalancing a Vegative Landscape
26,599 Hectares of IMPROVED FARMING MANAGEMENT
Making a Difference - LLCI-009005
The issue
Farming is causing a lot of stress to land resources due to poor farming practice. Irrigation of crops, for example, is a key contributing factor to salinization and alkalization of the soil that sustains plants growth. Poor practices in soil management and the use of heavy machinery and farming equipment contributes in destroying soil structure making it unsuitable for plant growth.
Some farming practices such as excessive use of pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides equally kill important soil micro-organisms that are essential in replenishing nutrients in the soil.
The solution
Over the past two years M2100 has been able to assist many people in our region to explore biological farming systems and management techniques in the lower Macquarie Valley through our small mentor network.
Biological farming systems have been proven to help re-balance landscapes through the improvement of the health of natural resources. There is currently limited support in the region for biological farmers to discuss issues and techniques with other farmers and with this funding we have been able to help provide that support.
The main purpose of the mentor network is for farmers to help other farmers on topics of their own interest. We have held 2 grazing workshops, 1 soil biology workshop and have conducted seed dressing trials to help assist in reducing the use of artificial chemicals in cropping.
The impact
The bio farming group has looked at holistic farming and we have 20 farmers attempting to change their practice to a more sustainable approach. Through this work we have been able to help adopt these methods over 26,599 ha.
Key facts
- 26,599 Hectares of IMPROVED FARMING MANAGEMENT