Sydney Rotary Helping Drought Resilience

SYDNEY - June 24, 2014 - PRLog -- Former Governor-General and Australian Advocate for Soil Health, Major General The Honourable Michael Jeffery, is Chairman of the not-for-profit Soils for Life. This organisation seeks to facilitate the regeneration of the Australian landscape – with a particular focus on the rural landscape and rural production.

General Jeffery said, “Western NSW has long been prone to drought, but increasing climate extremes are seeing these occur more often and with greater ferocity. We need to help our farmers to build resilience into their landscapes to enable them to minimise the impact of drought, maintain a modicum of production in hard times, and recover quickly afterwards – without further degrading landscape condition.”

“Innovative farmers are already using regenerative practices enabling them to do this, and we need to encourage wider adoption of these across Western NSW, and indeed, Australia-wide.”

“The joint Soils for Life and Rotary Club of Sydney Western Division Resilient Landscapes Project aims to help farmers learn how to manage their properties to minimise the impact of drought on production and landscape health, drawing from the experience of these already successful farmers.”

Rotary Club of Sydney, Geoff Wilbow, said, “The Rotary Club of Sydney has already been supporting drought-affected farmers in this region through funding hay haulage, but want to be able to provide something more sustainable.”

“We respect the work being performed by Soils for Life and are excited by this opportunity to work together to help farmers build long-term resilience to drought. We believe that increased prosperity of farming enterprises over time will lead to prosperous and healthy rural communities in the Western Division.”

Soils for Life is calling for expressions of interest for innovative farmers in the Western Division of NSW who are already using regenerative agricultural practices that are enabling them to continue production longer after the onset of drought and whose landscapes return to health more quickly when droughts break.

Regenerative practices, such as those documented in the Soils for Life case study report Innovations for Regenerative Landscape Management, demonstrate that by improving soil health and vegetation management, landscapes can become more efficient in their water use, absorbing and retaining more moisture and maintaining production for longer.

Soils for Life has already documented one example of such practices in the Western Division, near Brewarrina, and is seeking two new case studies to further demonstrate the practices that can be applied in the geo-climatic conditions that prevail in the Western Division of NSW.

The project will use these successful farming practice case studies to develop an information and demonstration program to encourage wider adoption amongst other landholders.

For further details on the project and to submit an expression of interest to participate, please visit the Soils for Life website: www.soilsforlife.org.au/western-division-project.