Long-term Trials Program: supporting innovation from 2025 to 2030
The Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund (FDF) has announced successful recipients of the Long-term Trials of Drought Resilient Farming Practices Program Round 2 grants.
The Program funds projects that investigate innovative farming techniques through science-based long-term trials, building drought and climate resilience for Australian farmers.
For Round 2, an expanded list of eligible industries includes cereals, other broadacre crops, horticulture, and livestock.
A total of $39.68 million in grant funding has been awarded to five applicants and their consortia, with projects set to run from 2025 to 2030.
Climate resilient sheep production systems
Led by the University of Adelaide, the project “Drought and climate resilient sheep farms and landscapes tailor-made for low rainfall farming regions” will include a strong Western Australian contingent.
WA-based partners include:
- Murdoch University
- Yuna Farm Improvement Group
- Northern Agri Group
- Liebe Group
- Merredin and Districts Farm Improvement Group
- Corrigin Farm Improvement Group
- Farming Systems Analysis Service
- Western Australian Agriculture Research Collaboration (WAARC)
- Grower Group Alliance (GGA) and the South-West WA Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (SW WA Hub)
This project will enhance resilience of sheep production systems by combining climate resilient sheep with novel, drought tolerant pastures, shrubs and trees which enhance consistency of feed supply, stabilise and improve landscape health, and create microclimates that increase sheep welfare and productivity.
Including cash and in-kind contributions, the project is valued at $15.7m and includes around 20 partners across southern Australia. The total grant amount of $7.93m from the FDF will see Western Australian organisations receive approximately $3m. The SW WA Hub played a crucial role in brokering local partnerships and GGA will provide local coordination of project activities including extension services, communication and engagement with local grower networks.
The first project meet-and-greet kicked-off this month and all project participants are looking forward to diving into the project planning process over the next couple of months. Further updates including a dedicated project webpage will be developed later this year.
Resilient Landscapes Grant Program: delivering impact at landscape scale
In addition to the Long-term Trials grants, eight projects across Australia have been awarded funding through the Resilient Landscapes Grant Program.
These projects will share in a total of $38.54 million to deliver projects that focus on achieving and measuring transformational change and impact at landscape scale, identify tipping points or thresholds and demonstrate practices, technologies or approaches to improve management of natural capital and enable farmers to be prepared for, and have the capacity and diversity of options to respond to, drought. This program will deliver projects from 2025 to 2030.
WA project targets sandy soils in the West Midlands
In Western Australia, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) is leading a WA-based project titled “Sustainable Solutions for Sandy Soils, West Midlands”. Partner organisations include:
- Edith Cowan University
- West Midlands Group
- Mingenew Irwin Group
This much needed project directly addresses the issue of farming systems failure in the unique biodiversity region of the West Midlands of Western Australia. Satellite monitoring identifies that this region consistently has large areas with insufficient groundcover to prevent land degradation. Properties with a history of low groundcover will be targeted for intensive support, while the broader farming community will be the focus of a comprehensive strategic development and extension program using a network of local farmer discussion groups with demonstrations of practice change including monitoring of system resilience.
WA involvement in two additional national projects
Two other projects have Western Australian partners.
The Mulloon Institute’s project will integrate First Nations landscape perspectives and regenerative agricultural practices that embrace complexity and healing. Showcasing scalable demonstrations that build skills and capacity across four catchment communities and two First Nations groups, TIMME is a whole-of-system framework for building resilience, demonstrating how to restore landscape function, healing Country and managing and monitoring natural capital.
The Invasive Animals Limited Group plans to deliver a national biocontrol mass-rearing, release, monitoring and evaluation network targeting priority rangeland and aquatic weeds that impact drought resilience in Australia. This project will maximise on-ground socio-economic and environmental resilience outcomes by leveraging approved biocontrol agents and existing applied biocontrol research capability, facilities and stakeholder networks among consortium partners across jurisdictions.