Agricultural land use is a major driver of hydrology, sediment, and nutrient movement in the Tweed River catchment. The Tweed Shire Council Sustainable Agriculture Program was established to address a critical gap: the need for locally relevant, farm‑scale interventions that reduce diffuse pollution while improving understanding of how soil, pasture, and biodiversity management influence river and stream resilience and farm productivity. The program responds to environmental challenges including erosion, nutrient runoff, floods, and acid sulfate soil impacts by strengthening collaboration between landholders, scientists, and council.
The program employs a place‑based, extension‑led approach combining soil health benchmarking, grazing and groundcover management planning, pasture diversification, and targeted biodiversity initiatives such as diverse cover cropping, syntropics, dung beetle identification and monitoring. The work builds baseline knowledge and advisory materials, coupled with farmer-to-farmer mentoring that support adaptive management without overstating benefits. Farm‑scale assessments, small projects, and on‑ground trials generate practical datasets, mapping outputs, and landholder guidance that link agricultural practices to catchment processes.
Early findings highlight improved landholder capability in soil and pasture management, greater adoption of practices that minimise runoff and erosion, and strengthened understanding of landscape function. The program influences landholder behaviour by translating scientific insights into methods that can be applied on working farms.
This work demonstrates how a sustainable agriculture framework can operate as an upstream river health intervention. The Tweed experience offers a transferable model for local governments seeking to integrate agricultural extension, community partnerships, and catchment management to improve stream condition at scale.