Australian farmers are working hard to use sustainable land management practices, with a lack of time and a shortage of funds presenting the biggest hurdle.
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The majority of Australian farmers are employing drought resilience strategies
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A survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) on natural resource management and drought resilience shows most farmers are employing the practices, ABARES acting executive director Jared Greenville says.
“For example, 84 per cent of farmers retain stubble and nearly 70 per cent are reducing reliance on pesticides and optimising fertiliser use,” says Greenville.
“Farming in Australia can be tough and it’s heartening to see our farmers employing best practice in both land and business management.”
Increasing drought resilience was commonly considered an important motivator for adopting new practices on broadacre properties, with many taking up new practices in the last three years.
For those that didn’t, the main barriers were a lack of available time (78 per cent of all farms) and lack of funds (73 per cent of all farms).
“Lots of farmers are employing drought resilience strategies as well: destocking early in low-rainfall periods [68 per cent of farms], improving water retention [64 per cent of farms], and investing in on-farm grain and fodder storage [58 per cent of farms],” says Greenville.
“Just as importantly, over half of farms [58 per cent] had a source of off-farm income and 37 per cent of farms had diversified their agricultural enterprises over the last three years to increase their resilience to drought.”
The survey was funded by the National Landcare Program and the Future Drought Fund and surveyed 2,355 farms, with a focus on broadacre, dairy and horticulture.
Data from the survey will support monitoring long-term drought resilience and the effectiveness of government natural resource management programs.