More than $600,000 will be awarded to projects helping to build the carbon farming market in South Australia.
As part of the Growing Carbon Farming pilot, 7 projects will receive between $43,000 and $100,000 in funding. These demonstrate:
- commercial carbon farming activities
- measurable environmental, social and economic co-benefits for South Australia.
The projects span horticulture, livestock, cropping and dairy. Ranging from soil carbon sequestration and revegetation to animal effluent management project activities, the projects are located around the state.
Through the pilot, carbon farming methods with application to South Australian production systems and conditions will be demonstrated. It will help to increase awareness and adoption of carbon farming among South Australian primary producers.
The pilot program is intended to assist primary producers to take advantage of:
- opportunities afforded by carbon and environmental markets
- market access in a low-carbon economy.
The successful projects are:
- Duxton Apples ($43,990) – Soil carbon sequestration in alley-crop production systems through cover cropping practices.
- Thomas Elder Institute ($99,400) – Capturing carbon neutral opportunities for livestock production systems in the upper South East of South Australia.
- Upper North Farming Systems ($99,726) – Applying whole-of-farm carbon project methods for climate resilience and diverse co-benefits in low rainfall farming systems of the Upper North.
- Cloud Agronomics ($85,000) – Applying clay amendments to sandy soils for improved soil quality and diversified revenue streams, while establishing an independent Cal/Val site for innovative soil carbon quantification technologies, on a property in the Upper South East of SA.
- Thomas Foods International ($100,000) – Improving carbon sequestration on Mount Schank grazing land for extension in the Thomas Foods supply chain.
- South Australian Dairy farmer’s Association ($100,000) – A biogas electricity generation facility combining a Covered Anaerobic Lagoon (CAL) to collect and generate electricity by burning accumulated/collected methane on farm.
- Mallee Sustainable Farming ($96,500) – Development and assessment of large-scale cropping systems-based soil carbon sequestration through soil amelioration practices for the SA Murray Mallee.
The funding will help to cover establishment costs for carbon farming, including technical advice and carbon measurement, for the 12-month-long projects.
Learn more about carbon farming and the pilot project.
