Carbon Farming Outreach Program training package

GAIL REYNOLDS-ADAMSON: Hi, and welcome to Carbon Farming Outreach Training package.

Kaya Kepa Kurl Noongar Boodja. My name is Gail Reynolds-Adamson, and I'm a proud Noongar woman from Wudjari Country, on the eastern border of the Noongar nation in Kepa Kurl, also known as Esperance. 'Kepa' is water, 'Kurl' is boomerang, and its where the waters lie like a boomerang.

MATT WOODS: Hi, Gail, and welcome, everyone. I'm Matt Woods, an agricultural and science journalist.

Today, we're at my home, outside Bacchus Marsh, on the border of Wurundjeri, Woiwurrung, and Wathaurong Country of the Kulin Nation, and I pay my respects to Elders past, present, and future.

In the valley below me is the Bacchus Marsh agricultural district, where market gardeners and orchardists farm some of the deepest top soil in Australia.

I've been on hundreds of farms and spoken to thousands of farmers from one end of Australia to the other. And if there's one subject top of mind for every farmer, it's profitability.

And that's actually what this training package is about. Because, in most cases, good carbon farming practices will improve the profitability and health of your land. Whether you want to enter the carbon market or not, the truly great outcome with carbon farming is that it can be a win-win: good for your farm business, land, and the environment.

REYNOLDS-ADAMSON: Thanks, Matt. It's great to be part of this Carbon Farming Outreach Program training package, and to be able to share with farmers and land managers from all over Australia some of the who, what, when, where, and why, of carbon farming.

This includes evidence-based knowledge and practices both from Western and traditional Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander culture.

I'm the chairperson of Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation in Western Australia. I'll be sharing more about the tree rejuvenation project we are running at Kardutjaanup to show you the many benefits, but also the risk requirements involved with this type of carbon farming.

WOODS: The aim of this package, through five short topics, is to give you the carbon farming essentials from expert practitioners, farmers, and land managers in all Ag (agriculture) sectors across Australia, like Gail, who've already embarked on carbon farming projects.

They'll share some tips and tricks with you, including why and how they did it, what technology and techniques they used, what worked, what didn't and who helped them along the way. We've also carefully researched and selected resources, materials, and tools that may benefit you and presented them by Ag (agriculture) sector and location for your convenience.

We know that you don't have loads of time to spend sitting in front of a computer. And that you need your learning to be relevant, targeted, accessible, and practical.

Each of the five topics should take you no more than one hour individually.

But we've also provided additional content and case studies if you want to find out more.

Short videos like this, as well as interviews and explainers, will allow you to access this package anywhere, anytime.

REYNOLDS-ADAMSON: The Carbon Farming Outreach Program training package won't make you an expert in carbon farming, but it will teach you the essential things you should know before embarking on carbon farming.

This includes benefits and risks, potential pathways to action, and the decision you will need to make, including whether or not to trade carbon credits, and some resources you can refer to for your location and type of practice. Importantly, we will help you to understand who you should talk to, what you should look out for when you are choosing advisors, and to ensure that you are getting quality, trusted, independent advice.

WOODS: Finally, each topic concludes with some relevant focusing questions, for you to consider in relation to your own circumstances.

Whether you're just learning about carbon farming for the first time and are exploring your options or had some experience and want to find out more, this package can help you. Think of it as like having a yarn with your neighbours over the fence about their carbon farming project.

PROFESSOR RICHARD ECKARD: For farmers and land managers to meet the goal of reduced emissions starting in 2030 through to 2050, they need to know what to do next, what steps to do next, and they need to know where the policy environment is coming from, who's asking them to be low emissions, what the targets are, and then what the options are for them to start responding.

Hi. I'm Richard Eckard, professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne. I lead the Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre, which researches the impact of climate change on agriculture and agriculture on climate.

What we're seeing is all the multinational supply chain companies that deal with agricultural produce have set targets, targets for reduced greenhouse gas emissions. And they average somewhere around 30 percent less emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050. What we also know is about 70 percent of Australian agricultural produce is exported down these multinational supply chain targets. And so how does Australia perform on the global stage when those companies start buying globally to meet their target?

So it's really imperative that farmers and land managers get on board to know how do they gear their system to deliver the low emissions product that the supply chain will want to buy by 2030. What we're trying to do is just bring up the knowledge that carbon farming is a part of their future.

There is this trajectory towards lower emissions. So making them aware of the policy environment, of the supply chain constraints, of how they need a partnership with their supply chain, to achieve this. And then some awareness of what is their number, how do they get their number, and how do they move down the track towards improving that number. And what are the technologies they can bring to bear to reduce their number, their greenhouse gas footprint?

So these will be things to start with are just best practice. Best practice that we've known for the last 40 years. Things like nitrogen use efficiency, better crop yields, better soil testing, better growth rates in livestock, feeding animals better, bringing legumes into agriculture. These are all things we've known for a long time that improve efficiency, but also reduce the greenhouse gas footprint.

Australia is already 22 percent more rainfall variable than any other country in the world, and the historic management of the land took that into account. Now we're becoming aware of this in how we do carbon farming, that we have to actually change from strictly European farming systems to systems that are more attuned to this high variability we're encountering. And so there's a lot to be learned from the Indigenous land management practices that we need to then incorporate into traditional farming, non Indigenous farming, so that it actually is a bit more in tune with the high variability we have in Australia.

Now the world needs to go net zero by 2050. What we haven't really reconciled is where does the big emission reduction take place? Obviously, it has to happen in the fossil fuel sector.

But we need to move towards, well, what can agriculture contribute to that inevitable net zero? And what can they contribute towards the 2030 goal? Now not every agricultural sector has the identical opportunity. We've got some intensive horticulture for example that have very low emissions and almost nothing to do to get to net zero apart from renewable energy. But you've got an extensive livestock sector where a lot of northern cattle stations, we don't even know how many cattle are there. So the challenges are vastly different, and this is what the program is trying to address is who has what options to move forward and what are those options.