The Department of Agriculture’s Smart Farms initiative supports the development and uptake of best practice, tools and technologies that help farmers, fishers, foresters and regional communities improve the protection, resilience and productive capacity of our soils, water and vegetation, in turn supporting successful primary industries and regional communities.

Four Eyre Peninsula projects have been successful in obtaining funding through Smart Farms Small Grants Round 2:

  • SA oyster production – received $41,000 to observe and learn how to use a ZAPCO floating system, reducing impact on marine biodiversity. Seagrass meadows will be monitored and the results shared with oyster growers, the community and Primary Industries and Regions SA during and beyond the life of the project.
  • Eyre Peninsula Agricultural Research Foundation Inc (EPARF) – $96,260 for adapting cropping systems to changing climatic conditions to reduce inputs and maximise water use through improving crop competitiveness.  EPARF will promote the outcomes of the project to the broader farming community.
  • Eyre Peninsula Agricultural Research Foundation Inc (EPARF) – $99,131 to demonstrate perennial pasture systems for the Upper Eyre Peninsula and other dryland farming areas, to turn the land into productive livestock pasture with only minimal inputs of fertiliser, and without the need for herbicide and tillage.
  • Lower Eyre Agricultural Development Association Inc (LEADA) – $183,400 for increasing adoption of new techniques combining physical, chemical and plant based interventions to improve soil function on Eyre Peninsula.

For more information and to view the Australia wide successful projects go to www.agriculture.gov.au