Close to $12 million is available in the latest round of the federal Reef Trust.

The program aims to reduce runoff from farm land by helping farmers better match fertiliser application to crop requirements.

The latest funding will engage farmers in Queensland’s Wet Tropics and Burdekin natural resource management regions to improve their nitrogen fertiliser and farm management practices to reduce pollutant run off into the Reef lagoon. 

The Scientific Consensus Statement 2013 identified the Wet Tropics and the Burdekin natural resource management regions as the highest priority areas, due to their contribution to the surplus of dissolved inorganic nitrogen from intensive agriculture.

The project helps farmers determine their own nitrogen use efficiency targets and cost-effective means of achieving those targets.

The Federal Government has set up a reverse auction process, delivered via multiple rounds, to allocate funding to maximise value for money and outcomes for the Reef.

NQ Dry Tropics has been appointed to support Burdekin farmers through the bidding process.

“NQ Dry Tropics and Terrain see the reef tender as a great opportunity to continue the good work that the Burdekin and Wet Tropics sugar cane industries have already achieved in improving the quality of water flowing to the Great Barrier Reef,” NQ Dry Tropics CEO Dr Scott Crawford told reporters.

“Sugar cane farmers will have the chance to implement on-farm nitrogen reduction or irrigation improvements that they may have been thinking about for some time, which improve water quality entering the reef lagoon,” he said.

Terrain NRM CEO Carole Sweatman said it was important to find tailored solutions.

“The great thing about this project is that it engages farmers to put their own ideas into practice about how they think they can improve nitrogen management on their farm,” she said.

“Applicants in previous rounds have been funded for a range of different solutions including applying mill mud and purchasing specialised equipment for precision farming, using legumes as a source of nitrogen, as well as trialling biological fertilisers.”

More information is available here.