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Identifying Work Needed to Build Soil Workforce and Improve Soil Management

The condition of Australia’s soil has been described as in poor condition and deteriorating. For a range of economic, environmental and social reasons, at scales from individual primary producers through to the national level, there is a clear and urgent need to improve the condition of Australia’s soil.

Ultimately this is what has driven the creation of the National Soil Strategy.

Priority Action Four of Australia’s first ever National Soil Action Plan focuses on identifying and developing the soil workforce and capabilities required to meet current and future soil related challenges. This work includes an assessment of the gaps, barriers and incentives for improving the soil workforce’s knowledge and capacity.

The SQNNSW Innovation Hub’s Regional Soil Coordinator, Cameron Leckie, has recently completed a regional ‘Soil Capacity Gap Analysis’ for the southern Queensland and northern NSW region focusing on soil issues, gaps in capability and capacity as well as barriers to adoption of improved soil management practices.

As part of developing the Gap Analysis:

  • Cameron conducted 65 interviews with a total of 112 people
  • 204 responses were also obtained from the National Soil Survey, co-developed with other Regional Soil Coordinators as part of the National Soil Science Extension Team Community of Practice.

“This is an important body of work that identifies both the scope and complexity of the work required to build the soil workforce and improve our soil management” Cameron said. 

The Report has been provided to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and will help inform the development of future programs and initiatives as part of the National Soil Strategy.

The Gap Analysis will also help focus the activities of the Regional Soil Coordinator over the next four years with updates planned for 2026 and 2028.

The activities of the SQNNSW Innovation Hub’s Regional Soil Coordinator have been funded through the Australian Government’s National Landcare Building Landcare Community and Capacity Program.

Disclaimer: The independent findings and recommendations of this report do not necessarily represent the views of the Australian Government or the University of Southern Queensland.

Links

  1. National Soil Action Plan: National Soil Action Plan - DAFF (agriculture.gov.au)
  2. Executive Summary – SQNNSW Region Soil Capacity Gap Analysis (PDF 145KB)
  3. Report – SQNNSW Region Soil Capacity Gap Analysis (PDF 2MB)