Healthy soils are fundamentally linked to strong regional communities through their connections to agriculture and the environment.
Soil underpins our agricultural production, directly contributing approximately $63 billion AUD per year to Australia’s economy (Jackson et al. 2018) and worth nearly $6 billion through agricultural production alone.
Healthy, well managed soils improve productivity and resilience, reducing reliance on inputs and mitigating risks such as drought, and attack by pest and disease. While soil degradation results in large direct costs such as infrastructure damage and loss of useable land, there are also indirect costs associated with lost opportunities such as those associated with loss of soil organic matter and reduced capacity to store water and nutrient for plant growth.
The Smart Soils project is an extension-focused project initiated in 2022, managed by Soil Science Australia with funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry through the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program under the Natural Heritage Trust,
Soil Science Australia is a not-for-profit, professional association for soil scientists and people interested in the responsible management of Australia’s soil resources. The organisation is a member of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and contributes to the National Committee on Soil and Terrain (NCST).
Soil Science Australia takes up the opportunity to improve soil health, by strengthening soil knowledge and capability. This is the key focus of this Smart Soils project and one of the main goals of the National Soil Strategy.
Soils Science Australia’s National Soil Science Extension Team (NSSET) are the Smart Soils team.
The National Soil Strategy is a 20-year strategy that sets out how Australia will value, manage and improve its soil. The Strategy has been developed in collaboration with state and territory governments and other major stakeholders in soil science and land management, including Soil Science Australia. There are broad goals:
The Smart Soils project supports goal 3 of the Strategy by strengthening soil knowledge and capability.
The National Soil Action Plan 2023-2028 complements the strategy, with 4 priority actions:
