Abstract
The problem of soil aridity is a significant challenge for Australia’s agricultural agenda. The drought itself is a consequence of many factors, among them anticyclone, human activity, and climate change. It is not possible to state definitively which of these factors contributes to the dryness, as they are all causally linked. That said, soil aridity has serious consequences, causing damage to Australia and the global community in both the short and long term. The critical consequences of such a condition are disruption of ecosystem ecological well-being, plant death, reduced crop yields, and famine. In addition, drought causes the ruin of private farms and job losses, which means it is appropriate to talk about the suppression of national economies. This problem becomes even more urgent when one considers the growing population: as the number of consumers increases, so makes the demand for affordable, safe food. Solving all of the above issues and problems imposes a serious responsibility on the agro-industrial complex, which means that agricultural enterprises must use the available resources to find a solution to the problem of drought.
For Australia, as a unique island biome, the problem of drought is exceptionally pressing. As a result of such a negative phenomenon, the biodiversity of local flora and fauna is reduced. At the same time, Australia itself is quite a vulnerable country, which often experiences natural disasters. Floods, massive forest fires, and earthquakes negatively affect the quality of fertile land. This portfolio offers a strategy for finding the best solution. Key features of such a strategy are the need to research global experience, the importance of using emerging technologies, and a plurality of opinions. It is crucial to achieving a complete compromise for all stakeholders represented by the public, farmers, entrepreneurs, engineers, and politicians. The project aims to find the best solution to improve at least 25% of dryland soils in Australia. However, the timing of the project is strictly limited: the final results must be achieved no later than 2025. In the end, all efforts should be aimed at improving the current environmental agenda in Australia.
The Problem of Australian Soil Drought
One of the most important fundamental questions of human survival is the search for optimal resources that allow for efficient existence. Optimal resources are defined as those that are readily available, easily reproducible, and relatively cheap. Thus, an indispensable resource for survival is food, without which humanity will perish. The food supplied must be of high quality, safe, and readily available so as to cover food security needs (Prosecco and Ivanova, 2018). In addition, it should be kept in mind that the global population is growing rapidly. According to Cilluffo and Ruiz (2019), the global population will be about 11 billion people by 2100. Obviously, social demands to provide quality, affordable, and safe food will also increase, which means that agricultural industry organizations will have to increase production capacity. Whereas such opportunities for expansion exist in the fertile soils of the midlands, Australian soils suffer from drought. Thus, the central problem of this portfolio can be formulated as the search for opportunities to improve the agricultural characteristics of arid Australian soils to increase fertility and yields.
The choice of such a broad topic justifies the great diversity of stakeholders. Improving agricultural soil characteristics, which has the potential to increase yields and make an additional contribution to the Australian national economy, is of fundamental importance to individuals as well as to the world. More specifically, improved soils positively affect private farms and large agribusinesses, improve the diversity and saturation of the local food market, and increase the export of grown raw materials abroad. The relevance of the problem is described not only by economic considerations but also by the need to preventively prepare a response for a scenario in which mass starvation occurs. As it is known, the Australian continent is often the cause of severe natural disasters. Figure 1 clearly shows that local areas are under constant threat of tsunamis, droughts, floods, tropical cyclones, and other factors. Moreover, the history of Australia knows many examples of peat and forest fires caused mainly by global warming. Thus, areas of Australia will constantly be negatively affected by various threats, and it is in the interest of the Australian government to take care as soon as possible to find tools to improve the fertility of local soils.
Discussing a time frame for this project may be difficult due to the inability to make precise predictions. In reality, populations continue to increase, and the destructive changes associated with global warming are increasingly destroying the agricultural sector. Thus, to trace the policy of the authorities to improve soil fertility over a ten-year period to 2025.
It is critical to understand that the development of this problem is of strategic importance to Australia, and so quite a number of research groups and private laboratories have their own solutions to the problem. This reflects a good agenda since, in a competitive environment, the government and private farmers have a choice. Nevertheless, the variety of solutions offered can create some ambiguity in their evaluation. In addition, when searching for the best solution to improve agricultural soil performance, it should be understood that the same product or tool may have different effects at different times of the year, for different plants, or in different soil types. Therefore, this portfolio is built on the principles of multifactoriality and extensiveness in an attempt to investigate as much as possible.
Relevance and Importance of the Problem
Drought is a highly unpleasant phenomenon for soils that has a devastating effect on fertility potential. The Australian government shows that the overall degradability of soils worldwide is as high as 33% (AG, 2021). At the same time, dryland use is only 3.59% within the country (AG, 2017). Aridity is a severe type of soil erosion in which there is little water in the structure of fertile land. Soils deprived of water are not known to be able to nourish plants, resulting in significantly reduced yields effectively. Dehydrated plants die and do not mature, and new, healthy plants do not grow in their place. Thus, drought is a critical threat to soil fertility, from which all the other problems of famine, declining economies, and declining exports stem. A prolonged absence of rainfall accompanied by low air humidity is thought to be a key predictor of drought (Ault, 2020). Typically, such conditions become the cause of an anticyclone, creating high evaporation and excess solar heat. On the other hand, the massive forest fires in Australia in past years have severely damaged soil quality (Soil Science Australia, 2020). At the same time, it should be understood that wildfires are caused by many factors, not the least of which is global warming. As a result of rapid climate change, as confirmed by the UN in its 2021 report, average air temperatures are rising (Allan et al., 2021). The UN has already shown that among the consequences of this change will be frequent natural disasters, including wildfires. Also noteworthy is the fact that such changes cannot be stopped or slowed because climate change is already in motion. Thus, it cannot be said that the causes of drought are unambiguous, but it is worth acknowledging their coherence and causality.
The effects of Australia’s soil aridity can be viewed from both short- and long-term perspectives. It should be made clear in the first place that Australia is a unique ecological system located in the southern hemisphere in isolation from the rest of the continents. Being, in fact, a massive island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Australia maintains biodiversity of local flora and fauna that is unique in the world. Taking this phenomenon into account, it becomes apparent how dangerous the long-term prospects of aridity are for local lands. Dehydration of soils results in the death of native plants, reducing their species diversity. Moreover, the death of plants has a consistent effect on the decline of herbivores and birds. The short-term consequences of such a problem should include reduced crop yields and shortages in the food market, job losses, and damage to the national economy.
Notably, desertification or aridity can be detected even in the early stages of initiation. While climate change or anticyclones are not actual, tangible facts, the visual metamorphosis of crops at the onset of drought is palpable. For example, there is a progressive loss of mature vegetation around over time, and the crops grown require more care and support to mature. In addition, the top, unconsolidated soil layer rapidly erodes, leaving dry land covered with cracks. Although the apparent strategy, in this case, is to irrigate the dried soil with excessive amounts of water, this procedure is actually detrimental to the soil. Because of the degradation processes that have begun, the excess water will cause the soil to become less acidic (Mulvihill, 2021). In turn, this will affect the purity of the groundwater, further exacerbating the effects of the drought.
The importance of soil aridity is inextricably linked to an ever-increasing population. If one looks at Figure 2, one can see that Australia’s population has grown rapidly over the past seventy years. The UN (2021) estimates that it will increase at least one and a half times by the end of the century. In turn, the increased population is related to the increased need for affordable food. With global climate change, the ability to grow food on arid soils is very difficult. Moreover, even if a farmer was able to plant a few hectares of valuable potatoes, there is no guarantee that the field will not be destroyed by massive fires or the effects of floods. Thus, preventive care of soil health should be a priority for the country’s leadership.
While soil aridity as a result of prolonged drought is an important and undeniable problem, a critical approach obliges us to discuss some of the benefits associated with drought. In fact, the benefits of drought are significant: they reduce the ecological damage to nature from humanity. For example, as a result of prolonged drought, communities learn and become accustomed to using less freshwater, which affects global water use. At the same time, News24 (2018) reports tightening control over commercial and public wastewater because of the need to manage water supplies. Also of note, the drought is forcing local people to train in hydrodynamic science professions, resulting in an improved understanding of natural water supply systems. Finally, during a drought, many predators gain advantages — albeit temporarily — over victims who are exhausted from hunger and thirst.
Finally, another factor that fully justifies the significance of the problem of arid Australian — especially eastern Australian — soils is the economic loss. It is understandable that the use of land for agricultural purposes is commercial in nature: by cultivating arable land, the country obtains a valuable food resource that both saturates the local market and can be exported to other countries. For Australia, such problems are not uncommon, and as Figure 3 shows, most local areas are vulnerable to drought. Consequently, economic losses to Australia due to drought are a pressing problem. Quantifying these losses is Canon (2020), who states that drought takes away as much as 0.9 points from Australia’s annual GDP. Notably, Wittwer and Waschik (2021) present somewhat different data. More specifically, Australia’s GDP declined 1.6 percent during the severe droughts of 2017-2019.
Some of the economic consequences of drought include market overstretch. It should be understood that after a sharp decline in yields due to drought, there is a surplus of food when climatic conditions stabilize. The unprepared market turns out to be surplus and inefficient, and surplus food rots in warehouses. Local incomes also fall, and unemployment and poverty increase. In the long term, prolonged droughts lead to a disruption of the psychological and physical well-being of the population, a reduction in the availability of education and isolation.
These reasons, whether environmental, economic, social, or demographic, determine the relevance of the problem under discussion. It is essential to develop strategies to find alternative answers to Australia’s climate problems so that it does not end up in a losing position. Nevertheless, providing high-quality food takes up many resources, and the solution to the issue of arid soils is not straightforward and unambiguous. For this reason, the following section discusses the potential for the development of this problem, considers some of the critical solutions, and builds an overall plan for the research strategy.
Future Project Development
It seems evident that the problem of arid soils is not human-driven and depends on natural forces. This is indeed true, but on this issue, it should not be forgotten that humanity has already been able to tame many of the processes and phenomena that occur in wildlife. Finding the best solution to the threat of dryland soils is another challenge that can be met with the proper integration of technical, political, financial, and creative efforts. This section attempts to predict future developments on this issue based on current developments.
In order to answer the question of how exactly this issue can be solved before 2025, it is necessary to look at already existing trends in the drought management industry. One such approach is to use mulch as a form of surface cover for still functioning soils (Ortiz-Cano et al., 2020). Applying a fine mulch will reduce evaporation and thus maintain soil moisture. It is also possible to use desalination algorithms to reduce water salinity and thus provide soils with fresh, mineral-free water. Desalination, however, is a very large-scale, labor- and energy-intensive process, so such developments are cost-effective to initiate only on a large scale. There is also no denying the apparent technological progress: computerized drip irrigation systems are beginning to appear on the solution market (Tuohy, 2021). Such systems have a built-in sensor of soil moisture and temperature at different depths in order to supply calculated volumes of water in a timely and preventive manner, preventing drought. Crop therapy is also of interest, implemented by Just Agrotech, whose products, when applied to the soil, improve its agricultural characteristics and help the plant to trigger genetic protection processes (JA, 2021). Thus, even in dry soils, Just Agrotech proves to be effective in preserving the viability of the plant. An important strategy worthy of attention is the planting of trees to turn the arid region into a forested area. The fact is that tall plants create shade storage for herbaceous plants and also form the soil biome through an expanded root system. However, it is evident that this process requires significant resources of time, which means it will not be finished until 2025.
At the same time, it should not be forgotten that one of the most critical drivers of drought is anthropogenic activity. Urban development, industrial activities, desertification of land, and drying up of marshes are causing the reduction of moisture in soils. As a result, in trying to improve some areas of life, humans come to disrupt others. The anthropogenic factor is an integral part of the overall problem of solving drought in soils in Australia, so reducing the negative effect of human activity should also be a strategy.
Hence, by now, it is clear that the future of this issue is built from the recognition of the need to solve it, the development of ideas and initiatives, and the practical implementation of the plan. While there is no longer any doubt with the recognition phase, there is a need to discuss the development of ideas. The drought management strategies discussed above reflect the real agenda around the world: the gradual adoption of technology as well as the use of classical agronomic procedures. It is clear that technology will continue to evolve and should be used to optimize drought management. To do this, it is necessary to study the world experience, especially in those countries where drought is a historical phenomenon. For example, examples from the UAE and African countries can be explored: in the UAE, for example, digital soil maps obtained by remote sensing of land are used (Abdelfattah et al., 2009). This makes it possible to monitor soil conditions in real-time and take preventive measures in case of deterioration of its agricultural characteristics. Israel uses established technology to deliver water from the northern part of the country to all other regions and automated irrigation systems (The Conversation, 2018). Thus, borrowing the progress of developed countries, it is possible to develop our own solution adapted to Australian realities. In addition, it is permissible to create a working group on the issue of combating soil aridity that would represent the interests of various stakeholders. Such a group would include politicians, farmers, entrepreneurs, engineers, and volunteers. The representation of different social classes in a single group to develop a solution will allow to take into account the interests of all parties and to find a compromise, the most convenient and beneficial strategy to preserve and increase soil fertility.
The Australian government’s drought fund is also worth considering. The Future Drought Fund (FDF) is a relatively new initiative offering funding to companies and private farmers developing drought solutions (AG, 2021). To date, the FDF has eight areas of focus, which include improving resilience, improving land tenure systems, and advances in climate information. Thus, the project under development has a chance to receive serious funding from the FDF, which means the opportunity should not be missed. Ultimately, all the efforts made will be aimed at improving the agricultural agenda in the Australian regions.
The final step in the implementation of this plan is the practical implementation of the developed idea on natural soil systems. It is worth understanding that the project is consistent but comprehensive. In other words, the stages of discussion, audit, adjustments, and expertise are integral to each step of the future solution. In addition, it is very likely that the working group will not produce one single solution but will instead create several possible options that are potentially effective. Testing each requires time, critical evaluation, and finances, so the implementation phase is one of the most protracted and most costly.
At the same time, the envisioned plan has a large scale, which means its implementation should be as smooth and seamless as possible. To achieve this, it is necessary to take care in advance about the financial, human, and material resources that will be needed. A financial analysis should be part of the preparatory work, and a cost estimate will allow for competent budget management. In addition, it is recommended to create a consistent timeline of the project in order to keep track of the schedule of tasks and adjust the overall plan.
SMART Assessment
To give clarity to the final results of the portfolio, the SMART approach will be used. In the first step, it is critical to be unambiguous and unambiguous about the goal of the entire project. Thus, the principal, central, and fundamental goal of this project is to address the problem of arid soils in Australia. It is necessary to search for the best solution to this problem. The specific goal is to develop a device, technology, or solution that will actually reduce the amount of unsuitable land among Australia’s dryland soils. This project has a quantitative measure: a product must be developed that will help solve the problem of arid Australian soils by at least 25 percent. In other words, nearly a quarter of arid land must be appropriately treated so that crops can be grown on it. Once this percentage is achieved, it will be possible to speak of the success of this project. The achievability of this project is ensured by both establishing a specific level to which to strive and a time limit. In addition, the proposed development steps are not highly complex and use known methods and procedures to achieve a specific outcome. The potential outcome of this strategy is either the elimination of drought as a problem or the adaptation of agricultural resources to the problem. This is an example of an elusive goal, but nevertheless, with the proper funding, effort, and initiative, the result is achievable. The relevance of the entire project is determined by the search for an answer to a pressing question affecting economic, social, and environmental consequences. In other words, the future well-being of Australia depends on the realization of this project. In doing so, the project is absolutely relevant to each stakeholder. Farmers receive increased yields, and the entrepreneur receives increased profits. The shared experiences the actions of a stabilizing economy, and the government improves the state and stimulates exports. Engineers use their knowledge for the benefit of the country, and environmentalists monitor the environmental responsibility of the entire project and take care of nature. This goal is supposed to be achieved no later than 2025. Consequently, there are no more than four years for all phases of the project. Thus, the implementation phase of the developed initiatives is recommended to begin no later than 2023.
As KPIs, it is proposed to use the compliance of the implementation of project tasks with the initial plan, budgeting, as well as the actual result of testing the solution found. In addition, the ultimate goal, namely the percentage of land that has been “cured” of drought, will be the leading indicator of effectiveness. It is noteworthy that even if the desired percentage is not achieved, this indicator will reflect the actual effectiveness and viability of the project, and thus it can become part of other, more extensive studies.
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