The three-year project involves five of the centre's participants along with the Grains Research and Development Corporation, which is a co-investor in the project.
The centre's chief executive officer Michael Crawford explained what expertise would be used during the project.
“The Soil CRC brings a broad range of expertise to the project with the combined strengths from university, state government and farmer group participants from across Australia,” Dr Crawford said.
“Finding practical solutions to Australia's underperforming soils by collaborating with researchers, industry and farmers is at the heart of the work of the Soil CRC.
“Partnering with the GRDC on this project is a great opportunity to further this work.”
While this project is primarily focused on highly calcareous soils, the research outcomes are expected to have application to all calcareous soil types.
GRDC soils and nutrition southern manager Stephen Loss said both the GRDC and the soil centre recognised that while calcareous soils have been the focus of research efforts over many years, an opportunity existed to expand upon existing knowledge and to provide growers with a suite of tactics to help overcome the constraints.
“Growers and advisers report that crops grown on highly alkaline, calcareous soils produce 35 to 45 per cent lower gross margins than crops grown on other less hostile soils,” Dr Loss said.
“The aim of this new investment is to identify the most important constraints to crop growth on highly calcareous soils in the southern region, increase our understanding of the relative impact of these, and then boost crop profitability through improved soil and crop management practices.
“Input and involvement by growers, advisers and farming systems group will be critical for informing the direction of the investment and ultimately in ensuring its success.”
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