The Western Australian Government has announced salt-affected agricultural land will be the target of a new $330,000 pilot project to test carbon farming as a solution to salinity.

 

Funded under the State Natural Resource Management program, the two-year program will investigate carbon farming as a means of managing salinity through sequestration.

 

State Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman said the project would be led by the Northern Agriculture Catchment Council, with scientific and technical expertise to be provided by the Department of Agriculture and Food.

 

“The strategy involves developing farm-based carbon farming information and accounting tools to help Wheatbelt farmers respond to climate change and manage salinity,” Mr Redman said.

 

“With the introduction of a carbon price, the ability of salt tolerant native species to sequester carbon has the potential to provide farmers with another option to manage salinity.”

 

Latest estimates show that about 1.1 million hectares of South-West land is currently affected by salinity.