A Survey of Emissions and Natural Resource Management Practices in Australia, 2023–24

A Survey of Emissions and Natural Resource Management Practices in Australia, 2023–24

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Managing natural resources and adapting to change are core activities for Australia’s farmers. Understanding what practices are being implemented by farmers and attitudes to natural resource management (NRM) practices, emissions reduction and drought help explain how sustainable Australia’s agricultural sector will be now and into the future.

In 2024, ABARES conducted a supplementary survey of farm practices and attitudes related to NRM, emissions reduction and drought resilience.

Previous survey results can be found on the Natural Resource Management and Drought Resilience — survey of farm practices (2021) page.

Survey results overview

• Over the three years to 2023–24, 92% of all broadacre and dairy farms used at least one surveyed Natural Resource Management (NRM) practice. Furthermore, 18% of broadacre and dairy farms expected to undertake at least one new on-farm activity to manage natural resources or reduce net emissions within the following two years.
• When separated by zone, 95% of broadacre farms in the wheat-sheep zone and 92% of farms in the high rainfall zone used at least 1 of the listed NRM practices, compared with only 59% of broadacre farms in the pastoral zone. These differences are partly because many of the practices are not relevant to farming activities in the pastoral zone.
• Soil testing was used by 57% of broadacre and dairy farms in the 3 years to 2023–24. Soil testing was more common on farms in the high rainfall (59% of farms) and wheat-sheep zones (58% of farms) than the pastoral zone (13% of farms), where there is less cropping and improved pastures.
• Improving farm sustainability and reducing farm costs or increasing productivity or output were the two most important reasons for using NRM practices across broadacre and dairy farms (80% and 79% of farms respectively).
• Among broadacre and dairy farms, only 7% of farmers indicated they knew their farm’s net greenhouse gas emissions. A further 12% of broadacre and dairy farms expressed that they would like to know their farm’s greenhouse gas emissions.
• 77% of broadacre and dairy farms used at least one practice in the 3 years to 2023–24 to increase resilience to drought. Usage of drought resilience practices on farms were higher in the wheat-sheep zone (84% of farms) than the high rainfall (72% of farms) or pastoral zones (70% of farms).

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All values are expressed in 2024–25 dollars (see methodology).