Mr Webb and his team of fellow farmers and scientists are currently in the process of developing an innovative approach to increasing soil carbon for a more sustainable farming future.

The vision of the project, Soil C Quest, is to double soil organic carbon by 2031 which Mr Webb said would be a solution to the problem of feeding our growing population.

The Soil C Quest team recognise that food security is the foundation for the stability of our global civilisation and that healthy, fertile soil is the foundation of food security.

Mr Webb said soil carbon is the basis for soil fertility.

“Soil carbon underpins everything in soil...it’s gold for farmers,” he said.

Soil carbon has been the focus of Mr Webb’s career due to the fact that up until now there has been no way of addressing the depletion of carbon from the soil, which has occurred as a result of modern farming practices.

“The way that farming gets carried out is naturally degrading to soil carbon,” he said.

“It’s always been a real issue - how do we build carbon and increase soil fertility when it’s a declining resource base?

“Soil Carbon stocks have been constantly declining however no one has come up with any practical solutions to the issue.”

In fact, the world’s soils have lost over half of their carbon stocks, while at the same time, climate change is the result of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Therefore, a solution to the dual problem of decreasing soil carbon and increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels (which is currently at dangerously high levels - 400 parts per million (ppm), which is 100 ppm above a sustainable level according to scientists) would be to find a way to store atmospheric carbon in the soil.

Mr Webb said soil is the most obvious choice to store carbon, as it is the largest terrestrial carbon sink on the planet, holding more carbon than the atmosphere and vegetation combined. 

“Soil is a win win - we’re short on carbon in the soil, as we’ve lost 70 per cent of our original carbon but we need less carbon in the atmosphere,” Mr Webb said.

The problem is finding a way to keep the carbon in the soil instead of it converting back into carbon dioxide, which is a natural soil reaction that results in lots of carbon going into the soil and lots going back out into the air.

Mr Webb said everything fell into place back in 2012 when he - along with Mick Wettenhall, a  Trangie cotton grower and grazier, and Mark Shortis, a Grenfell grazier and Landcare facilitator (the two others that make up the Soil C Quest management team) - attended a Soil Carbon Conference in Dubbo by Professor Peter McGee.

“We have been on this path for our whole careers - we’ve looked at all the different ways to improve soil carbon and been frustrated that we can’t...all the weird and wonderful things, we tried it all but we couldn’t shift the soil carbon,” Mr Webb said.

“When we saw this guy talk at Dubbo - it was like a light bulb moment.”

Prof McGee’s research through the University of Sydney involves a mechanism where soil carbon is deposited and stored safely within soil aggregates, using a specialised form of fungi.

Mr Webb said micro-aggregates, which are tiny particles of soil stuck together, are the safest place to store carbon and, according to Mr McGee, can store it for 100 up to 1000 years.

The idea behind Mr McGee’s research is to use this particular type of fungi to transfer carbon into micro-aggregates where they know it can be stored for a very long time.

Results of this research by Prof McGee and Dr Tendo Mukasa Mugerwa from Sydney University showed an 18 per cent increase in soil carbon in 12 weeks.

Samples were then tested in field trials in Forbes and Trangie on canola and cotton crops which saw a 32 per cent increase in soil carbon in 30 days.

Mr Webb said an 18 to 32 per cent increase in soil carbon is unheard of, but this proved that the principle idea of the research was working.

This means that conservatively, soil carbon should increase by 10 per cent per season, which could feasibly double soil carbon.

“A 10 per cent increase each year, within 10 years it could increase organic carbon soil from one per cent to two per cent,” Mr Webb said.

A one per cent increase in soil carbon across the world’s cropping soils could isolate the equivalent of 100 ppm of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

In terms of the benefits to crops, Mr Webb said that every one per cent of soil carbon stores about 140,000 litres of water, and also changes the physical characteristics of the soil.

“It affects water infiltration, so when rain falls, more will be soaked up...the availability of water to plant roots also increases.  If soil organic carbon is doubled, these water use efficiency figures also double,” he said.

“So in a dry year a 50 per cent increase in water use efficiency would mean a 50 per cent increase in yield….the economics of farming improves by doing it.”

Ultimately, this technology has the potential ability to solve the global issues of food security and climate change.

“It’s not just good for food security and income - it is also a viable tool for climate management,” Mr Webb said.

“It’s a humble fungus that does it’s own thing but it could revolutionise agriculture.”

Now, the plan is to secure funding through the not-for-profit organisation, Soil C Quest, to conduct further research to prove that it works, with the central west region to be the epicentre for the research of this soil carbon technology.