What is the National Agricultural Land Management Survey (NALMS) 2025?
The National Agricultural Land Management Survey (NALMS) 2025 gathers detailed information on how farmers across all agricultural sectors manage their land.
The NALMS will collect data to understand techniques farmers implement for cropping, pasture, vegetation, and water management. By collecting this data, we can identify trends and assess their impact on sustainability and productivity. We also look at land manager knowledge networks, and awareness and involvement in government-funded programs.
Insights from NALMS will assist government to understand the needs of farmers and inform policy and program development, support agricultural research and innovation and adequate funding for Australia’s agricultural sector. The survey will be an important input to understanding the sustainability of the agricultural sector, food security, and the well-being of the farming community and Australian society.
The survey will be conducted from November 2025 through February 2026, with results scheduled for publication in the latter part of 2026.
Who is conducting NALMS?
The NALMS 2025 survey is being run by the Social Sciences Program (SSP) at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), which is the research division of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF). We’re doing this work for DAFF’s Sustainability, Climate and Strategy (SCS) Division, with funding from the Natural Heritage Trust – Climate-Smart Agriculture Program.
The SSP team at ABARES carries out social research to advance understanding of the human and social dimensions of Australia’s agriculture, fisheries, and forestry industries. Our research is designed to be reliable, practical and useful for shaping policies, programs, and operational decision-making within government.
The SSP is leading the NALMS project, including designing the survey, analysing the results, and reporting in consultation with the client, and has hired a contractor – The Social Research Centre – to deliver the survey.
What is the role of the Social Research Centre in NALMS?
The Social Research Centre (SRC) has been commissioned by the SSP of ABARES to handle all aspects of the data collection for the NALMS. The SRC is an independent Australian social research organisation which is based in Melbourne and owned by the Australian National University.
Their specific role in the NALMS includes contributing to survey design and cognitive testing, programming the online survey, mailing hard copy surveys, capturing digital and paper responses, tracking returns and reminders, coding the data, and providing a clean dataset.
The Social Research Centre fully complies with the Australian Privacy Principles and all applicable privacy legislation. More information can be found on the Social Research Centre’s privacy policy.
If you have any questions, please contact the ABARES Social Sciences Research Team at SocialSciences.ABARES@aff.gov.au.