About Natural Sequence Farming

Natural Sequence Farming (NSF) is a rural landscape management technique aimed at restoring natural water cycles that allow the land to flourish despite drought conditions. It does not mean trying to take the landscape back to what it was the pre-European settlement. Instead, NSF focuses on establishing how the natural system worked in a particular area and how it works now.

NSF offers a low-cost, easily applied method of reducing drought severity and boosting productivity on Australia’s farms and landscapes. The technique is based on ecological principles, low input requirements and the natural cycling of water and nutrients to make the land more resilient.

Natural Sequence Farming has the following principles:

• Stream water is carried on the highest-formed land on a flood plain, which includes not only the stream channel and wetlands but also water meadows fed by subsurface flow and braided channels.

• Farmers factor in flood inundation as a beneficial part of the natural sequence.

• Floodplains are maintained by fresh water-filled subsurface flows through porous soil intake beds.

• Erosion is balanced by sedimentation.

• Polluted stream water is filtered as it moves through the chain of ponds, its wetlands, lush floodplain meadows, sandy groundwater intake beds and reedbeds along the length of the stream valley floor.

• Whole-of-farm ground cover is at a high ratio, with season-specific perennial and annual plants maintained in a balance of natural sequences, in turn confining weeds to a small percentage of the plant community.

• The farming system and livestock movement are harmonised with the periodic harvest sequence of crops, grasslands, and water meadows to maintain habitat and nutrient balance in the landscape.

• Biodiversity is maintained at a high level with the diversity of habitats created by the natural vegetation and aquatic sequences.