Grain yields boosted by over 50% without extra water

With just a few simple changes in farming practice, Australian grain farmers are boosting yield by over 50% without using any extra water.

This staggering improvement to water-yield efficiencies has won a Department of Agriculture Landcare Eureka Prize for Sustainable Agriculture for the Water Use Efficiency Initiative team, consisting of CSIRO’s John Kirkegaard and James Hunt, plus Stuart Kearns of the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

The gains are already being realised on farms across Victoria, NSW and WA, as grains farmers, sometimes after initial reluctance, are adjusting time-honoured practices to switch to the new Water Use Efficiency principles.

“The Water Use Efficiency team has certainly overachieved,” Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay said. “From an initial aim of increasing yield by 10%, they are helping growers achieve yield increases of well over 50%. The implications for farming in a country with periodic water shortages are obvious.”

The outcomes of the initiative include:

• The team has increased participating farms’ returns by $250 per hectare
• On some farms, weed control and maintaining ground cover over summer increased yield by 60% and earlier sowing of slow-maturing grain added another 22%
• Sowing a legume ‘break crop’ between crops could increase yield by up to 83%
• Average winter yield was increased across all regions by 25%.

The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, which are celebrating 25 years in 2014, are the country’s most comprehensive national science awards.