Despite renowned naturalist Charles Darwin's first impressions of Western Australia's landscape, nearly 200 years on local farmers and scientists have been able to realise the potential of the State's challenging sandy soils.
Despite renowned naturalist Charles Darwin's first impressions of Western Australia's landscape, nearly 200 years on local farmers and scientists have been able to realise the potential of the State's challenging sandy soils.
Sandy soils comprise 19 per cent of Australia, of which more than 5 million hectares is sown to grains crops - mainly in Western Australia and South Australia.
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) principal research scientist David Hall told the Global Conference on Sandy Soils today, WA's 'poor' and 'uninviting' soils had been transformed into productive farmland.
"One of the major breakthroughs has been the introduction of minimum and no tillage farming practices, which has gone a long way towards mitigating soil erosion," he said.
"The introduction of mineral fertilisers to address nutrient deficiencies in the soils, has resulted in tremendous increases in yield potential across the grains, pasture and horticulture industries.
"Deep ripping has improved soil structure and water infiltration by loosening subsoil layers to reduce the impact of hard pans, together with the adoption of controlled traffic practices.
"Topsoil water repellence has been reduced through a combination of inversion tillage, on row and furrow seeding, claying and the use of soil wetting agents.
"Decades of lime and gypsum application research with farmers has reduced soil acidity in the Wheatbelt, unlocking a significant area for grains production."
Mr Hall said while significant achievements had been made to overcome production constraints on sandy soils, there was still more work to be done.
"Research shows that where there are several constraints of equal severity, overcoming one constraint will have only a small impact on overall productivity," he said.
"Effective management of multiple constraints - compaction, water repellence, acidity, nutrition - has resulted in increased yields, water use efficiencies, profits and adoption.
"While this has seen productivity per hectare of land cropped to wheat double over the past 30 years - despite a drying climate - we still have not reached potential.
"The department's research teams continue to work alongside WA's growers - as we have for more than 130 years - helping them adapt and innovate to realise the productive potential of sands through our unique agricultural systems."
For more information about the Global Conference on Sandy Soils visit sandysoils.org .
