Building resilience to drought with landscape scale remediation of saline land

Full description

Patches of poor crop and pasture growth within paddocks, caused by the accumulation of salts in soil layers and not associated with saline water tables, are a common and persistent issue across the lower rainfall areas of Eyre Peninsula. Whilst these dry saline patches, historically referred to as ‘magnesia patches’, have been present for many years (Kennewell 1999), the results of a recent landholder survey (McDonough and Scholz, 2021) identifies landholder concerns that both the area of land impacted, and severity of production loss has increased in recent years. In 2021 an AIR EP project, funded by the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program in conjunction with the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board, investigated the differences in soil characteristics between areas of good crop growth and poor crop growth on sites at Karcultaby and Buckleboo. Results indicated that the soil profile in the better production zones had better drainage due to coarse carbonate fragments in the soil profile and less “wicking ability” limiting the capacity capillary rise of salts (Masters and Guidera, 2021). Growers have tried several management approaches with varying levels of success, including the addition of soil ameliorants such as sand or organic matter to the topsoil. Under a project funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and in collaboration with landholders, AIR EP and PIRSA-SARDI researchers, several demonstration sites were established in 2022 to assess a range of treatments, aimed at reducing the impact of these salts on crop and pasture production. This article summarises plant growth responses from treatments during the 2022 season.