Bush Summit 2021: Farmers will be paid for their dirt
Farmers will be able to cash in on their most common asset — dirt — with a new $50 million scheme to drive innovation in soil carbon capture.
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They have it in bountiful supply and now farmers will be able to cash in on their most common asset — dirt — with a new $50 million scheme to drive innovation in soil carbon capture.
The first stage of the federal government’s National Soil Carbon Innovation Challenge opens on Friday, offering landholders the chance to apply for grants to develop their ideas for reducing the cost of measuring soil carbon.
Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said this would make it easier for farmers to demonstrate how their land management was reducing emissions, and ensure they were “rewarded for their efforts”.
“Our soils hold billions of tonnes of carbon already, and they can hold more as they become healthier and more productive,” he said.
At the height of the NSW drought in 2019, Prime Minister Scott Morrison addressed the first Daily Telegraph Bush Summit on the importance of soil management in both reducing emissions and boosting resilience.
“Measuring soil characteristics would be revolutionised – so you’d no longer have to take bulk soil core samples, send them off to a lab and wait four weeks for a result,” Mr Morrison said at the time.
Three years later ahead of the 2021 Bush Summit, Mr Taylor said the new “challenge” would help remove the number one barrier to increasing soil carbon – the cost of measuring it.
“The Government’s Technology Investment Roadmap sets a goal of reducing the cost of measuring soil carbon by around 90 per cent, to less than $3 per hectare per year,” he said.
“If we can get the cost of measurement down, this is a great opportunity for Australian farmers.”
The second $49m stage of the challenge is expected to open in the coming months, however applicants with more advanced technologies can elect to apply directly for this second phase.
Projects can be conducted until June 2024.
The federal government has also invested $7.9m to collect more soil carbon data using existing techniques and make it publicly available.
This data would be used to support the challenge by testing how accurately the new technologies can predict on-ground soil carbon changes.
In the 2021-22 Budget the government allocated $196.9m to improve soil health, with support for farmers to increase soil testing to roll out Australia-wide in coming months.
REGISTER TO JOIN THE BUSH SUMMIT, ONLINE AT 9AM FRIDAY, HERE
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