Improving nutrient use efficiencies and building soil health can help vegetable growers overcome the rising costs of inputs, particularly nitrogen fertiliser. In addition, legume crops such as peas can provide an alternative source of nitrogen.

In Tasmania, peas are an important – yet marginal – rotational crop. VegNET Tasmania worked with the Soil Wealth ICP project, Simplot and processing pea growers to collect benchmarking data from 12 pea crops in one production season to support better decision making on crop management.

The results from three high performing pea crops provided insights into optimum pH levels and ideal application of fertiliser inputs, and a comprehensive benchmarking report was produced for each participating grower.