Partner Profile: Agriculture Victoria

Agriculture Victoria works in partnership with farmers, industry and communities to grow and secure agriculture in Victoria. The Strategy for Agriculture in Victoria, released in 2020, aims to deliver a stronger, more innovative and sustainable agriculture sector for Victoria.

Agriculture Victoria is a Partner in the Soil CRC and their involvement is through Agriculture Victoria Research and Agriculture Services. These two Branches provide research, development and extension services to the Victorian farming community. Agriculture Victoria delivers research and innovation with a clear focus on science and technology for productivity and biosecurity outcomes. 

Agriculture Victoria Biosecurity and Agriculture Services helps to facilitate positive practice change via a range of development and extension programs including land health, BestWool, BestLamb, BetterBeef, The Break and Soil Moisture networks, with farmers and advisory networks right across Victoria.

They have five SmartFarms that are future orientated, high tech, key innovation assets that test and demonstrate latest technology in regional locations relevant to agri-business and the dairy, grain, horticulture and livestock industries. These five SmartFarms located at Ellinbank, Tatura, Mildura, Horsham and Hamilton are ideally placed to maximise impact and relevance for the respective industries that they work with.

Agriculture Victoria brings a broad range of capabilities to the Soil CRC. They have expertise in soil constraints, soil carbon, soil chemistry, agronomy, plant nutrition, soil physics, soil biology, pedology, soil mapping, land information, rapid analytics, proximal sensing and data management. Being predominantly regionally based, Agriculture Victoria staff provide targeted extension services and are an effective conduit of information flow designed to maximise adaption of practices.    

Current projects and extension services are addressing multiple constraints to improve soil for sustainable production and environmental benefits and improving the resilience of soils for farming systems to adapt to a changing climate.

Soil CRC Projects Agriculture Victoria are working on:

Addressing complex soil constraints – led by Jason Condon, Charles Sturt University with collaborations from Birchip Cropping Group, Agriculture Victoria, Facey Group, FarmLink, Hart Field Site Group, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Riverine Plains and Central West Farming Systems.

Integrated solutions for accessing soil moisture – led by Ehsan Tavakkoli, NSW Department of Primary Industries with collaborations from Agriculture Victoria, Murdoch University, Burdekin Productivity Services and Charles Sturt University.