Building soil resilience and carbon through plant diversity

Many farmers want to improve their soil resilience to sustainably increase their productivity. This project will investigate changes in soil resilience and carbon stocks under a range of farming practices.

A range of agronomic strategies to increase plant diversity in cropping systems, including crop rotation, intercropping, temporary intercropping, pasture (ley) phases and cover cropping have been established in long-term cropping trials in the Soil CRC project ‘Plant based solutions to improve soil performance’. While the impacts on short-term changes to soil function, soil water balances, and crop yields have been quantified, longer-term impacts of these strategies on soil resilience and soil carbon dynamics, as well as productivity, remain unknown.

The project will investigate changes in soil resilience and carbon at a Birchip Cropping Group site in Victoria. It will also determine what reductions in fertiliser use can be gained in cane crops following mixed species cover crops at Ingham, Queensland, with Herbert Cane Productivity Services. It will also be planting a diverse range of plants in cropping systems to enhance soil function and resilience in the medium term (four to seven years) at two existing long-term field sites (Riverine Plains, Victoria and Central West Farming Systems, NSW).

The project will investigate how much organic material from cover crop and intercrop species is stabilised in soil and how it contributes to soil aggregation.