February 11, 2022
Farmers can now get paid if they share their soil data with the Federal Government.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said $21 million would be available to land managers wanting to contribute their soil data to a national database.
“The Historical Soil Data Capture Payments Program is part of the National Soil Strategy which aims to build knowledge for land managers to benchmark their soil against regional or type averages,” Mr Littleproud said.
“We know there is a lot of privately held soil data captured for agricultural management and other purposes. This program aims to gather and preserve soil data and make it centrally and publicly available for others to use.
“Better soil data will lead to improved research, technology and policy outcomes and will benefit all Australians.
“The Australian Government is seeking suitably qualified service providers to act as data brokers to help deliver the program.
“An industry briefing will be held on February 16 to inform agronomists, advisers, soil testing service providers and others about the opportunity to be data brokers.
“Once selected, data brokers will work with land managers to source soil data that has been collected and tested using approved testing methods in a laboratory.”
Land managers will be able to contribute their data when the program launches by engaging with data brokers.
Information about the participating data brokers will be published online
