Lessons learned from farmers' experience of soil carbon management practices in grazing regimes of Australia

Abstract

Previous research on increasing soil carbon sequestration, through soil carbon management (SCM), has not integrated social components into the ecological system. To understand how experienced farmers combine social and ecological components of soil carbon management practices, we have used a social-ecological systems (SES) framework. This study examines the distribution and pattern of farmers’ SCM practices, comparing and contrasting two farming cohorts based on inherent soil fertility in a rotational grazing regime of sub-tropical temperate grazing lands in Australia. Twenty-five grazing farmers with the land of low (<i>n</i>= 13) and moderate (<i>n</i>=12) fertility soils were interviewed about SCM and how they have maintained their grazing regime despite climatic constraints using the SES framework. Both farming cohorts (low-fertility farms and moderate-fertility farms) have shown resolve to continue their grazing regime because the benefits were manifold and affected the whole-farm sustainability. Farmers with low-fertility farms highlighted a number of SCM outcomes but were less confident of achieving them. Farmers were focused on the agri-environmental benefits of SCM practices in a holistic manner, rather than a single goal of increasing soil carbon. The interviewed farmers reported a number of benefits that accrue from their grazing regimes, including improvements in production, soil moisture retention, and soil health, even though some of these benefits were not measured. Farmers in more “stressed” environments, with low soil fertility, also emphasized mental health and landscape esthetics as outcomes of SCM. These features of the farmers’ SCM provide important benefits that are not easily quantified but are also instrumental in encouraging other farmers to manage their soil. Long-term practitioners of rotational grazing such as the farmers in this study can provide useful insights for a more targeted, customized, and nuanced government policy that focuses on whole-farm sustainability, which can also improve soil carbon stocks in similar regions of Australia.