SoilCQuest 2031

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Climate Smart Agriculture

Farm soil carbon - a win win

SoilCQuest 2031 was born of the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions & draw down carbon dioxide to limit climate change and reverse global warming. Integrating agricultural landscape productivity with carbon sequestration & environmental stewardship secures our food & fibre production now and into the future. Using the best agroecological methods to deliver profits & ecosystem services and sequester carbon is a win-win virtuous cycle.

The global benefits of increasing soil carbon

Increasing soil organic carbon by 0.4% per year in the top 30-40cm of our global agricultural soils between 2020- 2050 could have the following agronomic and social benefits:

  1. Boost maize, wheat and rice production by 23.4%, 22.9% and 41.9% respectively- worth USD $135.2 billion or approx. AUD $204.2 billion per year.
  2. Store an additional 37 billion m3 of water in soils, reducing global irrigation demand by 4% and saving an estimated USD $44 billion or approx. AUD $66.5 billion per year.
  3. Sequester approximately 1 Gigaton CO2e per year which would avoid social/economic costs of USD $600 billion or AUD $906.2 billion per year through climate change mitigation.
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How more soil carbon would benefit agriculture and society
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Nature’s free inputs
Cropping
Grazing

Holistic Carbon Agronomy

With carbon as the central metric of success, Australian land managers can design and manage landscapes by considering the carbon management zone- from the top of the troposphere to the bottom of the aquifers. 

This approach involves harnessing and managing the free resources available to the farm- water, nitrogen, carbon, sunlight, gravity & wind.

It also increases drought resilience and captures maximum monetizable environmental goods & services (EGS) such as carbon and biodiversity credits.

Through scientific and economic validation and extension, farmers can integrate carbon-centric methods into their enterprises and have the opportunity to participate in the carbon market.

A holistic approach to farm management harnesses ecosystem services to maximise soil carbon.
This is integral to cropping methods and grazing strategies that build and store soil carbon whilst bolstering yield outcomes and climate resilience.

Nature’s free inputs
Cropping
Grazing

Nature’s free inputs

Managing above and below-ground biodiversity and the small water cycle allow farmers to harness the free inputs that nature provides.

  • Remnant Connection Connecting existing remnant vegetation incorporated as windbreaks & shelterbelts.
  • Tree Lines creating biodiverse multispecies tree lines as strategic windbreaks & shelterbelts.
  • Fodder Trees connecting remnant vegetation via fodder tree / shrub alleys as biodiversity connectivity.
  • Paddock Perimeter & Block Plantings creating moisture trapping microclimates via vegetation paddock perimeters and internal paddock block plantings that host various native animals.
  • Agroforestry & Hort Trees timber & fruit/nut treescreating ecological environments for biodiversity.

  • Conserving remnant vegetation

  • Feral Animal Control to protect native animals

  • Exclusion fencing

  • Strategic grazing for fire hazard reduction and understorey health

Managing on-farm water flow maximises water efficiency, pasture & crop growth and subsequent carbon sequestration.

  • Contour Banks
    redistributing water flows evenly across the landscape to rehydrate the watershed aquifers.

  • Leaky Weirs
    slowing water speed in drainage lines.

  • Swales
    farm-over contour banks

  • Strategic dam structures

  • Strategic Vegetation Water Interception Traps
    using biodiversity and or agroforestry plantings to trap excess overland water flows.

  • Blue Carbon
    reefs, mangroves, wetlands and land-to-ocean runoff management.

  • Integration of on-farm renewable energy and agricultural
    production systems for increased soil carbon sequestration

  • Energy audits to assess the on- farm energy use C02 footprint of fuel, fertiliser, electricity and

  • embodied energy in the supply chain.

  • Solar combined with grazing systems

  • Wind turbines combined with grazing systems

  • On- farm hydrogen production powering tractors and trucks

  • On- farm renewable energy powering vehicles & irrigation pumps

  • Nutrient capture- animal manures, composting, wastewater management

  • Recycling plastic wrap and other on farm waste streams

Cropping

  • Min / zero till

  • Legume rotation

  • Stubble retention

  • Controlled traffic

  • Stripper fronts

  • Cover Cropping

  • Intercropping

  • Crimp Rolling

  • Root Mass Stimulation

  • One-Way-Valve Cover

  • Fallows

Crop specific soil carbon-fixing fungal inoculums.

  • Solid loose

  • Compost granules

  • Johnson Su

  • Vermi-compost

  • Windrow

  • In furrow liquid extracts & ferment

  • Lime

  • Gypsum

  • Dolomite

  • Rock Phosphate

Grazing

100% Groundcover, 100% of the time.
High stocking density with short grazing periods & long rest periods.

  • Tagasaste- Lucerne Tree

  • Leucaena- Sub tropical legume fodder shrub

  • Desmanthus- Fodder Legume shrub

  • SaltBush- Undersown & inter row seeded with hard seeded legume annuals & Lucerne

  • Kurrajong Fodder Tree- slow growing, long lived

  • Native Fodder Trees- Soil & environment specific, e.g. Mulga, Myall, Wilga, Wattle, Rosewood

  • Time controlled grazing

  • Dual purpose multi-species fodder and grain crops

  • Pasture cropping

  • Perennial Multispecies Legume based

  • Feed additives