Climate, land & water

Western Australia’s agriculture sector needs access to productive soil and water resources for growth and profit. However, the sector must compete with increasing resource demands from all sectors of the community, and the pressures of a changing climate. The Agriculture and Food division of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development supports agriculture by providing long-term management solutions, practical risk management strategies and tools to maintain and improve resource conditions, to meet the needs of industry and stakeholders. Agriculture and Food is also pioneering soil and water investigation of the state’s undeveloped areas to establish new irrigated agricultural industries.

Articles

  • An evaporation basin is a natural salt lake or engineered earth structure designed to store and evaporate saline water.

  • To make sound decisions on managing saline sites, you need to know the source of salt, how salinisation is occurring, the landscape context, and most importantly, the actual salt concentration of t

  • Pumping of groundwater and disposal of saline effluent (reject water) from desalination is covered by regulations requiring owners or occupiers to notify the Commissioner of Soil and Land Conservat

  • Dryland salinity can be assessed on-farm by observation and/or measurement.

  • Salt is a natural component of land, water and ecological systems in Western Australia. Large areas of naturally saline land (primary salinity) were present before European settlement.

  • The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) completed a major analysis of groundwater trends in the agricultural areas of south-west Western Australia in 2014.

  • Rising groundwater is a major land degradation hazard in many areas of the South West Agricultural Region of Western Australia, and results in increased salinisation.