pecans – Flood Recovery project

2022 Floods

The 2022 floods in New South Wales and Queensland was one of the worst flood events in the nations history, with many areas receiving their annual rainfall by March and flood damage estimated cost of $4.8 billion. There was a number of pecan growers situated in the effected region, suffering substantial losses and on some farms a complete loss of crop in 2022. 

What’s it all about?

The APA received a flood recovery grant to study the impacts of the 2022 floods and subsequent water logging on effected farms. The project will look at soil physical, chemical and biological factors that are the major constraints to production, so that growers can aim to remediate those factors and increase resiliency for future flood events. 

The project team are establishing field trials across New South Wales were growers have been severely impacted by the flooding and long term anaerobic conditions as a result of the weather conditions in 2022. 

The research will seek to understand how floods and extended water logging has constrained soil physical, biological and structural components. 

The research will deliver insights into the effects of flood impact and 2022 conditions on: 

• Soil structure (infiltration, compaction, bulk density)
• Soil chemistry (pH, N, P, K, CEC, micronutrients)
• Soil biology (Organic carbon, Labile carbon, Organic matter, macrofauna, fungal to bacterial ratio, microbial biomass)
• Tree nutrient uptake (leaf tissue samples)
• Tree health (quantitative vigour assessments)

The results and the progress of the project will be shared at industry field days in as well as a report that will be available through the APA.