Plan to grow barley on salt land

A group of Wyalkatchem farmers are studying a proposal to grow barley on salt affected land to produce ethanol. The Agriculture Department recommends barley cropping as a control measure for mildly affected salt areas. John Hutchison, a local farmer who has been a driving force in the move, said he believed that there was about 1,000 hectares of salt-affected land in the district that could possibly produce 1,000 tonnes of barley and provide a significant quantity of fuel for blending. A steering committee is expected to establish a group to make a thorough study of the proposal and the degree of support it requires. PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to provide a public view of this newspaper article as the copyright is held by the publisher of The West Australian. If you would like to obtain a copy of this newspaper article for research purposes, please ‘request a copy'. This article is part of the WISALTS (Whittington Interceptor Sustainable Agriculture Land Treatment Society Incorporated) Collection