Drought resilient soils – optimising water capture and use in the landscape

Project Category: Hub Projects

Project summary:

This project brought together farmers, advisers, researchers and industry stakeholders to identify opportunities to improve water capture, storage and use in South Australian dryland cropping, pasture and mixed farming systems. The project reviewed previous research and investment, identified remaining knowledge and adoption gaps, and used regional consultation to guide priorities for future drought resilience investment.

Project description:

Regional workshops and industry consultation were used to explore five key areas: agronomy, crop and pasture sequences, pastures, soil amelioration, and nutrients and fertility. Participants considered what has worked, where practice change has occurred and what continues to limit adoption, before developing regionally relevant ideas for future investment.

The consultation identified a need to better support growers and advisers to interpret research, assess risk and return, and apply available information to individual farming systems. Priorities included soil water and plant available water, soil constraints, amelioration, nutrient cycling, stubble and groundcover management, spatial agriculture and mixed farming systems.

Key achievements and results:

The project finished in September 2026, following a statewide consultation process to identify priorities for improving water capture, storage and utilisation in South Australian dryland farming systems.

Four regional workshops were held at Wudinna, Cummins, Watervale and Tailem Bend, supported by further consultation with industry groups. Farmers, advisers, researchers and industry representatives explored existing knowledge and practice change, remaining gaps and barriers, and opportunities for future research, development and extension. Key priorities included soil water and plant available water, soil constraints and amelioration, nutrient cycling, groundcover management, spatial agriculture, mixed farming systems and clearer decision-making tools that incorporate risk and return.

The findings informed the development of Cultivating Capacity – Empowering People, Unlocking Soil Potential, a proposed statewide investment framework designed to better connect practical field evidence with learning resources, adviser and facilitator capability, and farmer-led adoption. The framework focuses on helping growers and advisers translate existing research and new evidence into practical decisions that improve water capture and utilisation and strengthen farming system resilience.

The project’s final consultation report and Cultivating Capacity investment proposal can be found in the reports and resources below.

Further information:

The project consulted growers, advisers and industry to identify key learnings, gaps and priorities for improving soil water capture and use, and used these findings to develop a proposed framework for future investment.

The SA Regional Soils Coordinator role is part of a national network of Regional Soils Coordinators (RSC), supported by the Australian Government through funding from the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust.