The Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) is the Australian Government’s key investment platform for achieving its natural resource management, sustainable agriculture and environmental protection outcomes.
Through the NHT the Australian Government has established the $302.1 million Climate-Smart Agriculture Program over five years from 2023-24. This program will drive agricultural sustainability, productivity, and competitiveness. It supports the following program outcomes:
- The agriculture sector is adopting practices to reduce emissions and build resilience to climate change.
- The agriculture sector is supported to harness carbon and biodiversity incentives and implement industry sustainability frameworks.
- Farmers are supported to drive agricultural growth, while adopting sustainable natural resource management practices that protect and conserve natural capital and biodiversity.
The Climate-Smart Agriculture Program is comprised of the following investment streams:
Partnerships and Innovation
Partnerships and Innovation grant is an open-competitive grants with a total of $45 million available over 4 years (2024-25 to 2027-28) for medium to large scale projects to drive the development, trialling, adoption and roll-out of climate-smart, sustainable, innovative tools and on-ground farm practices that increase the agriculture sector’s productivity and profitability.
The Partnerships and Innovation grant round opened for applications on 22 February 2024 and closed 9.00 pm 8 April 2024.
| Recipient legal entity name | State | Project/activity title |
|---|---|---|
| The Mulloon Institute Limited | National | The Landscape Function Toolkit. Equipping Australia with a Systems-Approach to Landscape Climate Resilience. |
| Grower Group Alliance Inc. | National | The Ripple Effect. A national, grower-led collaboration to increase biodiversity and reduce emissions via the demonstration and accelerated adoption of best-practice water management, strengthening farm water security, productivity and sustainability. |
| The University of Western Australia | WA, SA, VIC, NSW, QLD | Pasture diversification and management to promote climate resistance and resilience. |
| Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation | NQLD | Increasing climate resilience, ecosystem health and agricultural profitability in Queensland grazing landscapes with Cultural Fire management and traditional plant knowledge. |
| SOUTHERN GULF NRM LTD | NWQLD | Improving land condition across Northwest Queensland to boost productivity, build climate resilience and increase biodiversity. |
| Healthy Land and Water Ltd | QLD | Building resilient and productive grazing landscapes through the adoption of climate-smart practices and engagement with natural capital markets, industry driven environmental credentials and sustainability frameworks. |
| The Queensland University of Technology | NSW, QLD | Climate Smart Cotton - reducing nitrous oxide emissions with enhanced efficiency fertilisers. |
| Cotton Research and Development Corporation | TAS, NSW | Advancing the adoption of climate-smart, innovative irrigation control technology for the cotton and dairy industries. |
| The University of Adelaide | SA, NSW, TAS, WA, VIC | Innovative Soil Technologies to Foster Resilience and Climate Smart Crop Production in Australia. |
| Charles Sturt University | NSW, VIC | Developing practices for profitable, sustainable sheep production in a variable climate. |
| Australian Wool Innovation Limited | National | Australian Wool Insetting Project. |
| James Cook University | National | Rejuvenating agricultural soils to enhance productivity, resilience and carbon sequestration using enhanced rock weathering. |
For more information, please visit the GrantConnect website.
Capacity Building
Capacity Building grants are providing up to $15 million in funding over 4 years (2024-25 to 2027-28) through 2 rounds of open-competitive grant opportunities. These grants focus on increasing community capacity and capability for climate-smart, sustainable agriculture and natural resource management practices in Australia to drive on-ground adoption. The grants will build on the success of existing climate-smart, sustainable agriculture projects, initiatives and information sources.
Round 1
The first round of Capacity Building is now closed. Up to $9 million in funding was made available through this round.
Round 1 opened for applications on 22 February 2024 and closed 9.00pm 28 March 2024.
Successful applicants funded through this round are listed below.
| Recipient legal entity name | State | Project/activity title |
|---|---|---|
| The Mulloon Institute Limited | NSW | Water Stewardship for Climate resilience - Nurturing skills for First Nations / Farmer collaborations. |
| Narrabri Local Aboriginal Land Council | NSW | Climate-smart Gomeroi grain and food production with regenerative agriculture. |
| Bass Coast Landcare Network Inc | VIC | Creating climate-smart communities - building awareness, knowledge and skills to increase the capacity of the agricultural sector and First Nations people in West and South Gippsland to transition to a sustainable, climate- smart future. |
| Geographe Catchment Council Incorporated | WA | Geographe Resilient Farms - Geographe Farmers protecting Geographe Bay (GFPGB) by implementing climate- smart and sustainable agriculture practices. |
| Mimal Land Management Aboriginal Corporation | NT | Mimal First Nations-led whole of community approach to build, test, and pilot knowledge resources and decision- making tools to guide the transition from buffalo enterprises to nature capital markets in Arnhem Land and to scale. |
| Mallee Catchment Management Authority | VIC | Increasing the capacity of Mallee farmers to identify and adopt climate-smart farming practices with innovative soil mapping tools. |
| Stirlings to Coast Farmers Inc. | WA | Improving farmers' knowledge and capacity to increase nitrogen use efficiency and reduce grain crop carbon emissions through optimised rotations and in-season nitrogen strategies in the highly inefficient high rainfall zone of Western Australia. |
| Accounting For Nature Limited | National | Empowering Regions, Agricultural Industries, and First Nations with Trusted Environmental Accounting Solutions through Accounting for Nature. |
| The University of Queensland | QLD | Enhancing soil health and climate resilience in the Northern Territory. |
| Local Land Services | NSW | Water wise for the future - Community-led learning for productive, sustainable and future climate ready intensive irrigation industries. |
| West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority | VIC | Cultivating Connections - First Nations peoples and farmers collaborating for Climate-Smart Agriculture. |
| Northern Australia Aboriginal Kakadu Plum Alliance Co- operative Limited | NT | Wild harvest & Kakadu Plum cultivar capacity development project. |
| Wheatbelt Natural Resource Management Incorporated | WA | Wheatbelt land-use paradigms - navigating new industries in the low carbon and natural capital era. |
For more information, please visit the GrantConnect website.
Round 2 is expected to open in 2025.
Small Grants
Small Grants are providing up to $13 million in funding over 4 years (2024-25 to 2027-28) through up to 3 rounds of open-competitive grants for on-ground focussed projects led by a range of community groups, Landcare groups, First Nations groups and research organisations. These small grants will support the adoption of climate-smart, sustainable agriculture best-practice that improves management of our natural resources, supports response to climate change and increases on-farm productivity.
Round 1
Applications for the first round of Small Grants are now closed.
Round 2 is expected to be advertised in 2025.
Soil Capacity Building
The Soil Capacity Building grants are comprised of two grant rounds:
- $6.26 million for a team of Regional Soils Coordinators (closed non-competitive)
- $2.14 million for a National Soils Community of Practice (restricted-competitive).
These grants are supporting networks for researchers, primary producers, and community groups to work together, and provide a forum for soil practitioners to share the latest soil science information and tools.
The targeted application process for both grant opportunities opened on 7 February 2024 and closed on 5 March 2024.
Soil Health Information
The government is also continuing to invest in soil through:
- $21.6 million for a National Soil Monitoring Program to understand the condition and trends of soils nationally. The data will support stakeholders to make evidence-based decisions to improve soil health at a range of scales and will be made available publicly through the Australian National Soil Information System.
- $6 million to enhance Australian National Soil Information System (ANSIS) to provide improved access, sharing, and use of nationally consistent soil data and information to help sustainably manage our soil, and to support decision-making and policy outcomes.
Regional Delivery Partners and Landcare
The Climate-Smart Agriculture Program also recognises the vital role that Regional Delivery Partners and National Landcare organisations provide in achieving sustainable agriculture and natural resource management outcomes. The following investment streams will support this:
- $8.6 million for Supporting National Landcare Organisations - operational funding – to support our National Landcare Organisations to maintain their capacity, and ensure they are primed to deliver NHT outcomes efficiently and at scale.
- $27.1 million for Regional Delivery Partner operational funding – to support the operational capacity of a national network of Regional Delivery Partners to deliver NHT outcomes efficiently and at scale.
- $85.6 million for Regional Delivery Partner project funding – for Regional Delivery Partners to initiate practical, on-ground, climate-smart, sustainable agriculture projects across 52 regions in Australia.
- $40.7 million for Sustainable Agriculture Facilitators – to provide a national network of facilitators employed by each of the Regional Delivery Partners. The facilitators will connect farmers, landholders, community groups and agriculture industries to relevant information and programs on climate-smart, sustainable agriculture practices; facilitate partnerships and connections; and support the delivery of sustainable agriculture projects in their region.
These investments will also strengthen First Nations engagement and participation to enable the agriculture sector to draw benefits from traditional knowledge and support First Nations agricultural enterprise.
Through the program’s effective on-ground projects, the government will support farmers to manage climate risks and invest in their on-farm natural capital and effective natural resources management, helping the sector to respond to climate change, better withstand future bushfires, floods and droughts and protect its productivity.
Further information
- Albanese Labor Government putting tech, tools and trials on the table in latest grant round
- Albanese Labor Government putting climate-smart farming front and centre
- Growing soil health through Climate-Smart Agriculture
- Joint media release: Funding to landcare groups to support sustainable agriculture
- Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry's opening of the Small Grants Round 1 grant opportunity April 2024
- Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s opening of Partnerships and Innovation and Capacity Building grant opportunities February 2024
- Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s Climate-Smart Agriculture Program announcement October 2023
- Climate-smart sustainable agriculture 2023-24 Budget factsheet
- Environmental and joint components of the NHT, including the Panel of Regional Delivery Partners
The previous phase of the NHT was comprised of $1 billion for Phase 2 of the National Landcare Program, which funded a range of natural resource management projects to June 2023.
This webpage will be updated regularly over the duration of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program (current phase of the NHT).