The Partnering to implement the National Soil Action Plan program is a $20 million initiative from the 2023-2024 budget.
The Australian Government is partnering with states and territories to deliver 17 projects that address one or more priority actions of the National Soil Action Plan (2023-2028) through clear, measurable commitments to localised action.
State and territory governments and their collaborating partners – including soil researchers, farmers, land managers and natural resource management groups – will directly benefit from the funding to deliver on-ground activities that help advance the protection and improvement of Australia’s soil health.
Stakeholders will benefit from improved soil knowledge, increased workforce capability, accelerated adoption of land use and management practices that protect soil, and be supported to collect and use soil data to inform best practice management and decision making.
Projects will start in the second half of 2024, and will conclude by June 2028.
Projects funded under the program are below
| Project Title | Project Description | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Soil Champions - coaching and mentoring program | This project will train ACT farmers, ACT Government and ACT Landcare staff to become future soil coaches through peer-to-peer mentoring, and assist ACT farmers to move to regenerative agricultural practices. | $504,000 |
| Landscape Rehydration and Soil Health across ACT Parks and Urban Spaces program | This project will improve soil water retention capacity and restore natural soil functions in ACT catchments by undertaking extension, field days and workshops to increase the number of public land managers adopting regenerative land management practices. | $300,000 |
Total funding amount: $804,000 | ||
| Project Title | Project Description | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Improving soil knowledge and skills of agricultural practitioners | This project will develop soil workforce capabilities and promote soil science career roles, by developing resources for educational institutions and agricultural practitioners, and providing new soil information to improve the soil knowledge base. | $970,098 |
| Enhanced acquisition of and access to soil data and soil management knowledge to support best soil management practices | This project will enhance the use of soil data and knowledge by developing a new app to allow soil data to be captured and delivered to databases, modernising data management systems to future proof soil data, and expand knowledge on the relationship of Indigenous cultural burning and soil health. | $1,141,267 |
Total funding amount: $2,111,365 | ||
| Project Title | Project Description | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Developing a Northern Territory Agricultural Soil and Land Management Manual | This project will create a ‘go to’ manual for land managers, new investors, researchers and agronomists through combining recently published soil data and information with land manager and industry knowledge. | $825,000 |
| Developing sustainable pastoral carrying capacities for improved land management practices and soil condition across the Territory's rangelands | This project will collect and integrate soil information with pasture growth models and land resource mapping to estimate carrying capacities for pastoral leases and Aboriginal Land Trusts (with an initial focus on the Victoria River District) using a pasture growth model. A reference guide containing information on important pastoral soils will also be produced. | $1,055,000 |
| Developing Soil Knowledge Capacity in Northern Australia | This project will train and mentor graduates exposing them to all aspects of soil investigation and survey: soil survey planning, remote area field programs, synthesising data and presenting and publishing new land resource information and mapping products. | $410,000 |
Total funding amount: $2,290,000 | ||
| Project Title | Project Description | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement of First Nations people and early career scientists to build capacity and incorporate traditional knowledge into the future of soils in Queensland | This project will accelerate the training and development of six graduate scientists (including at least two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders) in both contemporary and traditional soil science. The project will increase the engagement of First Nations people by incorporating traditional knowledge into the training continuum, through products such as story-boards. | $1,100,000 |
| Legacy Data Capture and Training | This project will improve the collection and storage of soil data by upskilling key organisations in the processes required to ensure quality soil data is captured and entered into databases, and establishing a framework for Queensland Government funded projects to ensure soil data is collected to minimum standards. | $140,800 |
| Mapping Queensland’s Soil Carbon Sequestration Potential as a Decision Support Tool for Policy Makers, Land Managers and Investors in the National Carbon Market | This project will produce a free online decision support tool that maps the state’s soil carbon sequestration potential and will provide a transparent framework to assist decision making in carbon farming projects. | $1,129,154 |
| Infrastructure and the critical zone: Soil information tools for infrastructure development, maintenance and rehabilitation. | This project will produce a range of spatial soil information as decision support tools at the large linear infrastructure scale and at the on-farm infrastructure scale to improve planning and the availability of soil data across Queensland. | $385,000 |
Total funding amount: $2,754,954 | ||
| Project Title | Project Description | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Creating the South Australian Soils Collaboration Centre | The South Australian Soils Collaboration Centre aims to improve the state’s soil knowledge base through increased collaboration and coordination. It will establish the South Australia Soils Knowledge Network, upgrade the state’s soil information system, identify gaps in the soil workforce and develop the workforce’s capabilities. | $2,702,268 |
Total funding amount: $2,702,268 | ||
| Project Title | Project Description | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Tasmanian High Soil Carbon Landscapes - Improving Soil, Climate, Ecosystem and Traditional Knowledge | This project will improve knowledge of Tasmanian High Soil Carbon Landscapes within both agricultural and conservation landscapes. It will deliver guidance products and tools for sustainable land management and inform climate change calculations relating to carbon emissions and sequestration. | $2,343,940 |
Total funding amount: $2,343,940 | ||
| Project Title | Project Description | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Soil biodiversity across landscapes | This project aims to understand the soil microbiome (including its populations and functions in agriculture and natural ecosystems) to improve nutrient cycling, maintain or improve soil carbon, and support soil and landscape recovery. | $1,699,654 |
| Improving soil structure for resilient ecosystems | This project will increase drought resilience by targeting agriculture management practice changes that improve soil structure and function across a range of industries. Improved soil structure will enable greater water storage for plants, reduce nutrient loss to the environment, and increase the potential to build soil carbon. | $1,492,314 |
Total funding amount: $3,191,968 | ||
| Project Title | Project Description | Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Soils - New Horizons | This project aims to increase nutrient use efficiency through increasing soil sampling by growers and interpretation of soil data against national benchmarks. The project extends existing Healthy Estuaries WA (HEWA) and Soil Wise programs, targeting broadacre grazing in areas with greater than 550 mm annual rainfall and outside HEWA supported catchments. | $2,110,000 |
| Know Your Southern Soils (South Coast), Western Australia | This project aims to increase soil knowledge, drive the adoption of improved soil management practices, and position soil to be part of a regional natural capital accounts initiative across the South Coast hinterland between Albany and Esperance. The project has three interlinked modules – soil assessment and data collection, engagement and extension, and soil workforce training. | $1,563,000 |
Total funding amount: $3,673,000 | ||