Sustainable Agriculture – Report Card

2026 Assessment: Progressing – Strong progress; target likely reached but not yet independently verified

There is strong evidence of sustained farmer engagement in sustainable and best-practice land management across the Northern Agricultural Region.

In 2021-22, NACC NRM reported that Sustainable Agriculture capacity-building activities engaged 205 farm businesses and more than 1,000 land managers across 13 groups. In 2022-23, Sustainable Agriculture projects and activities engaged more than 1,250 land managers and 22 groups, supported by more than 15 capacity-building events and 24 demonstration sites.

Farmer engagement has continued through grower-group partnerships, field days, workshops, demonstration projects, drought-resilience activities and peer-learning initiatives. More recently, this has included the establishment of a Resilient Farming Community of Practice, providing an ongoing forum for farmers and landholders to share information and experience relating to soil health, climate-smart practices and resilient farming systems.

These figures provide strong evidence of progress towards the target of engaging 300 farmers or farm businesses by 2030 and indicate that the target may already have been reached. However, available public reporting does not provide a cumulative count of unique farmers or farm businesses across the reporting period. Repeat participation between projects and events therefore prevents the 300-participant target from being confirmed from published data alone.

2026 Assessment: Strong progress; numerical target not yet verifiable

There is strong evidence of coordinated, multi-site sustainable agriculture projects being delivered across the Northern Agricultural Region by grower groups, farming organisations, government agencies, research institutions, natural resource management organisations and industry partners.

Since the 2021 NARvis update, regional projects have addressed soil health and amelioration, groundcover and stubble management, drought resilience, water-use efficiency, crop rotations and legumes, nutrient management, soil carbon, greenhouse-gas emissions, climate adaptation and farming-system profitability.

Examples include Mingenew-Irwin Group’s Making Every Drop Count project, involving 20 paddock-scale farm case studies and five to six large-scale demonstration sites across the Irwin River Basin; West Midlands Group projects addressing issues including soil water repellence, groundcover, soil carbon, soil testing, nutrient management and farming-system resilience; and Liebe Group projects investigating soil moisture, soil health and farming-system management.

Other examples include Yuna Farm Improvement Group research into interactions between soil nitrogen, soil moisture and crop production, and regional components of the DPIRD–GRDC Western Australian Farming Systems Project.

Many of these initiatives operate across multiple farms, trial or demonstration sites and involve collaboration between growers, grower groups, researchers and government or industry partners. They provide strong evidence that the coordinated, multi-site approach envisaged by this goal is occurring throughout the region.

However, there is currently no publicly available regional register that consistently identifies and counts projects against the specific NARvis definition of a “coordinated, multi-site project”. Individual demonstration or trial sites should not be counted as separate projects, and projects involving multiple organisations should be counted only once.

2026 Assessment: Target achieved and research activity continuing

There is strong evidence that the target of at least 10 research projects investigating new techniques and technologies for best-practice agricultural land management has been achieved across the Northern Agricultural Region.

Since the 2021 NARvis update, research undertaken by grower groups, government agencies, research organisations and industry partners has examined soil health and amelioration, soil water repellence, water-use efficiency, digital agriculture, soil-moisture monitoring, crop rotations, legumes, nutrient management, carbon sequestration, greenhouse-gas emissions, drought resilience, stubble management, sowing strategies and whole-farm profitability.

Major examples include the DPIRD–GRDC Western Australian Farming Systems Project, which includes a long-term farming-systems trial at Northampton examining more than 40 treatments involving rotations, sowing times and nitrogen rates. Measurements include yield, soil nutrients, water use, weeds, disease and greenhouse-gas emissions, with results incorporated into whole-farm economic modelling.

The Liebe Group project portfolio provides further examples, including research into soil-moisture probe technology, stubble management, soil health, soil amelioration and carbon. West Midlands Group research includes projects investigating soil water repellence and amelioration, soil carbon, grain legumes, potassium management and other farming-system issues. The Soil Water Repellence Project, for example, is establishing Participatory Action Research groups and demonstration sites to investigate soil constraints, amelioration options and their economic performance.

Research undertaken by the Yuna Farm Improvement Group has investigated interactions between nitrogen supply, soil moisture, sowing density, crop production and nitrogen-use efficiency under contrasting seasonal conditions. Mingenew-Irwin Group’s Making Every Drop Count project has also investigated combinations of groundcover, pasture legumes, sowing techniques, stubble management and other practices intended to improve drought resilience.

Collectively, the publicly available evidence identifies more than 10 distinct research projects or substantial research programs operating within, or directly involving, the Northern Agricultural Region since 2021. The numerical target has therefore been achieved, with research activity continuing.

2026 Assessment: Progress evident; regional hectare target cannot currently be quantified

There is evidence that farmers across the Northern Agricultural Region are changing management practices in ways consistent with best-practice and sustainable land management.

Since the 2021 NARvis update, projects and farmer-led initiatives across the region have supported changes including improved soil and groundcover management, erosion control, soil amelioration, improved water-use efficiency, perennial pastures, landscape rehydration, rotational grazing, nutrient management and climate-adaptive farming systems.

Some projects provide quantified evidence of practice change. For example, NACC NRM’s 2023-24 reporting records that the Chapman Catchment Collaborative Landscape Scale Regeneration project resulted in changed practices across 2,981 hectares of actively managed agricultural land. Management plans were developed for seven sites, focusing on hydrology restoration and biodiversity enhancement.

Other regional initiatives demonstrate the continued implementation and testing of improved land-management approaches. Making Every Drop Count, for example, demonstrates practices including permanent groundcover, pasture legumes, sowing techniques and stubble management, while West Midlands Group projects include work on soil water repellence and amelioration and other approaches intended to improve soil condition and farming-system resilience.

However, the NARvis goal requires approximately 50,000 additional hectares per year to move under best-practice management, reaching at least 500,000 additional hectares by 2030. Available regional reporting does not provide a cumulative, de-duplicated measure of hectares on which farmers have adopted qualifying practices.

Areas included in research trials, demonstration sites or extension programs should not automatically be counted as hectares under changed management. Similarly, the same land may be involved in more than one initiative and should not be counted more than once.

2026 Assessment: Emerging activity; target not yet verified

There is increasing activity in Australia and Western Australia around market-based incentives for sustainable agricultural production, including carbon farming, environmental markets, agricultural traceability and sustainability certification. These mechanisms are creating opportunities for landholders and agricultural producers to demonstrate environmental outcomes and respond to increasing market demand for sustainably produced products.

Sustainability credentials are already influencing access to agricultural markets. CBH Group uses the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) program to certify sustainably produced Western Australian grain and access international markets. CBH reports that more than 15 million tonnes of sustainability-accredited Western Australian canola have been exported to the European biofuels market since 2010, and that it continues to identify opportunities for sustainable grain in international food, feed and biofuel markets.

There is also evidence of sustainability certification supporting new product pathways. CBH has previously developed a certified sustainable malting barley pathway for international customers using ISCC certification. These developments demonstrate the growing commercial relevance of sustainability credentials and their potential to provide incentives for producers to demonstrate sustainable farming practices.

These developments are relevant to the NARvis goal; however, the goal specifically requires at least three new markets for sustainably farmed products to be developed by 2030. Available public evidence does not currently identify three distinct new markets developed since the NARvis baseline that are demonstrably accessible to producers in the Northern Agricultural Region as a consequence of adopting best-practice land management.

Programs supporting carbon farming, environmental outcomes, certification, traceability or sustainability reporting should not automatically be counted as new markets unless they result in a clearly identifiable buyer, product pathway, price premium or other commercial opportunity for sustainably produced agricultural goods.