The Soil Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has announced funding for six new research projects, with a cash investment of $3.2 million and $6.7 million of in-kind contributions from participants. The investment brings the number of active Soil CRC projects to 44 and the spending on projects to more than $30 million since it launched in 2017.

Soil CRC chief executive Dr Michael Crawford says there has been a shift in the organisation’s research at the halfway point of its 10-year involvement in the industry. “There is a focus on commercialisation of new technologies and adoption frameworks that will ultimately have on-farm impacts,” he says.

The six new projects will run over the next two to three years. Some involve new research, while others will follow on from previous Soil CRC research projects.

One project is investigating how residues from cover crops and intercrops contribute to increasing soil productivity and resilience in a sustainable way. Researchers will work with grower groups to test different crops on varying soil types in wide-ranging parts of Australia and evaluate changes in soil properties.

The project, which is being led by Dr Terry Rose at Southern Cross University, will investigate how much organic material from cover crop and intercrop species is stabilised in soil and how it contributes to soil aggregation.

Long-term trial sites

Dr Rose says the project will make use of long-term trial sites in NSW and Victoria to explore the longer-term impacts of plant diversity on crop productivity, soil resilience and carbon dynamics, “since subtle changes that occur in the short term might not result in tangible changes in only three years”.

“The project team will continue to quantify soil function parameters (including microbial biomass, carbon dioxide respiration, soluble nitrogen and carbon, total nitrogen and carbon, soil enzyme activities and citrate-extractable protein) but will also investigate whether cumulative subtle changes in soil microbial function result in demonstrable changes to topsoil aggregate stability and water infiltration, which have much more relevance to growers,” he says.

“These parameters will be quantified in each year of the study – in autumn prior to winter crop sowing – and will be analysed with crop growth, water use and yield data to determine whether any changes in soil parameters can be linked to productivity outcomes. The project will engage grower groups and farmers to provide them with novel, plant-based options for enhancing soil resilience, soil carbon and productivity over the medium to long term.”

The goal is an increasing rate of farmer adoption of new practices and technologies that improve soil health.

Other projects focus on improving adoption. One of these, which is under the stewardship of Dr Nathan Craig at the West Midlands Group in Western Australia, aims to develop a tool to help growers, advisers and researchers understand the potential risks and rewards of adopting new farming technologies and practices.

The project will create a reporting tool to communicate the risks and benefits of new farming technologies and practices. The tool will help extension agencies to share research with growers in a standardised way that allows better evaluation and balance between short and long-term soil health benefits and improved farm profitability.

“Using this will drive improved soil stewardship and adoption of Soil CRC outcomes, as farmers will have the knowledge to balance the short and long-term benefits of new farming practices and technology available to them,” Dr Craig says.

“In the long term, the goal is an increasing rate of farmer adoption of new practices and technologies that improve soil health through access to detailed but clear information that guides decision-making. This will drive improved farm business performance, soil health outcomes and natural resource stewardship.”

The second project with a focus on improving adoption is assessing how cost-effective it is to use waste products such as manure and dairy farm waste as fertiliser. This project is led by Dr Richard Culas at Charles Sturt University.

Another project involves developing viable alternatives to peat for applying microbial inoculants such as rhizobia. Researchers will evaluate the alternatives’ efficacy in glasshouse experiments and in-field experiments across different soil types, climatic zones and agricultural regions in Australia.

Alternative rhizobial carriers

A previous Soil CRC project, ‘Evaluating alternative rhizobial carriers’, assessed 100 potential carriers and identified and developed the best four alternative carrier formulations – mill-mud based, biochar-based, diatomite-based and cow manure-based. These all have higher rhizobial survival rates, nodulation and drought resistance than peat inoculants under laboratory conditions.

The novel rhizobial carrier formulations developed from the laboratory now require large-scale glasshouse and field trials to evaluate their efficiency. The project will look at nitrogen-fixing efficacy, crop yield and environmental impacts. It will involve manufacturing of these novel carriers for seed coating and granular products and glasshouse and field experiments to evaluate their efficacy across different soil types, climatic zones and agricultural regions in Australia.

At the University of Tasmania, Dr Marcus Hardie is leading a project that is working towards commercialising a wireless below-ground soil sensor node. The technology – known as the ‘Bilby’ – is a communications node that houses any type of soil sensor.

By locating it underground, it is kept safe from damage by stock, machinery or pests. The ‘Bilby’ transmits data (such as soil moisture readings) through the soil to an above-ground gateway located safely in a non-production area such as a laneway or fence line. It is capable of sending data to a receiver up to 500 metres away.

It will allow growers to install soil moisture probes along with its power supply and communications, completely underground. This has the dual benefits of protecting expensive equipment and installing sensors in the production zone.

Rapid soil test toolkit

The sixth project, ‘Rapid soil tests using ‘lab-on-a-chip’ and an app’ being conducted by Dr Liang Wang at the University of Newcastle, has developed a prototype of a field-based toolkit for measuring soil pH and nitrogen, using microfluidic chip technology (‘lab-on-a-chip’). The device will allow GPS mapping of soil testing data to existing soil and geological information, which will help enhance the meaning of the test result.

A related colourimetric calibration tool using smartphone cameras has also been developed. The prototype of the smartphone app uses the phone camera to capture results from the colourimetric measurement of the reactions on the microfluidic chip. This app can automatically interpret the colour values into the quantitative prediction of targeted soil nutrients using calibration models.

The project will undertake commercialisation and market studies for the devices’ design and cost. If fully developed and integrated, the final devices should attract significant commercial interest, especially from organisations that supply soil testing services to growers. Ultimately, growers will have access to a faster, cheaper and reliable alternative to conventional soil tests.

The Soil CRC is funded by the Australian Government through the Cooperative Research Centre Program and by its 39 participant organisations, including eight universities, four state agencies, seven industry organisations and 20 grower groups. GRDC is a collaborating partner on an ongoing project - More profitable crops on highly calcareous soils by improving early vigour and overcoming soil constraints: HPS2006-001OPX.

More information: Katherine Seddon, Soil CRC communications manager, 0433 812 889, katherine.seddon@soilcrc.com.au