Lochiel Carbon Project 8

Lochiel Carbon Project 8 is a soil carbon sequestration project located approximately 4km northeast of the small township of Lochiel and roughly 130km north of Adelaide in South Australia. Registered in January 2026, the project covers 538.60 hectares within the Mid North agricultural region. The site sits near the notable "Pink Lake" (Lake Bumbunga), an area defined by its transition between productive cropping land and pastoral grazing zones.

The project operates under the "Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models" methodology (2021 Determination). This method credits landholders for increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks over time. Unlike tree planting, this project integrates into an existing farming system. The specific activities for this project involve addressing nutrient deficiencies through synthetic or non-synthetic fertilizers and introducing legume species into cropping or pasture systems. These leguminous plants are chosen to fix atmospheric nitrogen, thereby boosting plant biomass and ultimately sequestering more carbon into the soil profile.

The environment in the Lochiel region is typically semi-arid to Mediterranean, with a winter-dominant rainfall averaging between 350mm and 400mm annually. The soils in this part of the Mid North are often characterized as calcareous sandy loams or red-brown earths. These soils can be highly productive for cereal and legume cropping but often historically lack high organic carbon levels, making them suitable candidates for sequestration projects. This project is one of several clustered "Lochiel Carbon Projects" managed by the proponent, Agriprove, indicating a coordinated regional approach to soil carbon farming.