Researchers and farmers are set to join forces to find ways of drought-proofing Western Australia’s 200,000 Wheatbelt dams – to help meet the needs of modern farming enterprises.

“The Grower Group Alliance (GGA), which will lead ‘WaterSmart Dams – Making dams work again’, welcomes the $3 million in funding announced from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund (FDF) Drought Resilience Innovation Grant program,” GGA chief executive officer Rikki Foss said.

“This exciting project addresses WA farmers’ critical need for water reliability. Although above-average rainfall was received in 2021, an overall trend of declining rainfall, and reduced and less reliable water run-off, have caused many local dams to dry out in recent years.”

WaterSmart Dams also involves grower groups Compass Agricultural Alliance, Southern Dirt, Merredin and Districts Farm Improvement Group and the Fitzgerald Biosphere Group, and researchers from The University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD).

The State Government is contributing $1 million, with in-kind contributions coming from partners, plus support from the South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (SW WA Hub), which is led by the GGA and funded by the FDF.

WaterSmart Dams builds on the existing WaterSmart Farms program – a collaborative DPIRD-designed program researching sustainable groundwater supply options using on-farm desalinisation technology. 

The new three-year WaterSmart Dams project will investigate solutions including renovating existing dams, building new dams, and implementing evaporation suppression and runoff technologies. 

SW WA Hub Acting Director Mark Holland said the work would be of interest to every farmer who had a dam and would involve 12 core demonstration sites, building farm-based water planning tools, plus workshops, field days and industry training.

“This is a highly collaborative project involving an excellent team, and aligns with the SW WA Hub’s purpose of improving the drought resilience of farmers and their communities,” Mr Holland said.

UWA Associate Professor Nik Callow said UWA welcomed the opportunity to partner with the GGA, grower groups and DPIRD, and to undertake work that would significantly benefit WA farmers.

“Knowledge and water planning tools are demanded by farmers who need their dams to work in all years, and they need to be able to make water investment decisions with confidence,” he said.

DPIRD Senior Principal Research Scientist Richard George said Wheatbelt producers had reported 25 to 100 per cent of their dams had failed from 2018 to 2020, impacting cropping and livestock operations and forcing the export of two million sheep from the region.

“Most dams were built to meet the needs of previous farming systems and smaller enterprises, and are based on rainfall and temperatures from decades past,” Dr George said.

“Modern farms require more reliable, higher quality and larger volumes of water – to service the needs of bigger, more complex cropping and livestock systems – and this project will help bridge that divide.”

Dam Technology Gallery

Demonstration Sites

Date published: 10 December 2021

1. Project Background

Farming – takes up half of the world’s habitable land, accounts for 10% of our annual GHG emissions and can have severe long-term implications for biodiversity, ecosystem services, and food security. However the potential to convert agricultural land into carbon sinks is considerable. Globally, soil organic matter contains nearly 4 times as much carbon as either the atmosphere or terrestrial vegetation.

There are many benefits of building more carbon into our soils through techniques called regenerative farming – whether it’s cutting concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere, boosting food security, creating resilience against changing weather patterns or halting biodiversity loss. Regenerative agriculture is helping farmers to redesign the farming system to work together with nature, instead of against it. 

One of the first steps in improving soil health and to increase soil organic matter and carbon which is central to regenerative agriculture is to shift away from synthetic fertilisers across to natural fertilisers. By using natural fertilisers the soil biome is enhanced which increases soil organic carbon and builds new soil. Humate levels increase, improving the soil’s ability to absorb and hold water, reducing the toxic effect of residual amounts of herbicides and retaining more nutrients. 

Typical natural fertilizers include mineral sources, all animal waste including meat processing, manure, slurry, and guano, plant based fertilizers, such as compost, and biosolids.

This project is the first step in the greater process of shifting to regenerative agriculture. It will examine the ability and help develop the strategy for grain growers to transition from synthetic fertilisers to natural fertilisers while maintaining production and profitability. 

2. Project Objectives

The key objective of the project is to reduce barriers to adoption of natural fertiliser inputs in broadacre farming through a trial demonstrating a proposed ‘transitional’ methodology of conventional to biological fertilisers at time of seeding. This will be completed by examining the impacts on soil microbial activity, organic carbon and yield plus the requirement for herbicide/pesticide application through the application of different compost extracts, synthetic fertilisers and a combination of both.

The key outcome that is being explored through this project ‘can we transition from conventional agriculture to regenerative practices using biological inputs while still maintaining a productive farm enterprise?’

• Set up an agricultural multi-plot trial in order to:

• Provide technical knowledge in how to transition to Regen Ag practices using ‘30% rule’ with Compost Extract as the biological component.

• Provide quantitative evidence of Regen Ag practices being successful within low rainfall zones.

• Run a field day to review:

• application techniques and results

• advice for transitioning, and

• seek input on next steps and future trials of Regen Ag inputs.

Look at the changes to production outcomes from variation to nutrient inputs including:

• Changes to soil microbes,

• Organic carbon levels

• Requirements for herbicide/pesticides application

Questions to address from trial

1. Which product / combination produces best yield?

2. Which product / combination produces best profit?

3. Which product / combination produces best soil / plant health?

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