It is hoped farmland made unproductive by salinisation, caused by the Noora Basin, will be returned to use thanks to trial funding from the Australian Landscape Trust.
$10,000 was granted to the Noora Basin Community Working Group for the planting of Puccinellia across six salt-affected sites and properties.
The perennial grass is highly salt tolerant and can form tussocks 40 to 70 centimetres high, potentially providing a grazing resource on land rendered unproductive by rising salt levels.
The Puccinellia was sown in July and landholders are hopeful it will be a positive step in remediating land that has become the subject of dispute between farmers and government.
The potential for a salt tolerant wheat species will also be investigated.
The salt disposal basin is managed by the state government, but landholders and soil scientists say its use has led to more than 100 hectares of land becoming unproductive, with another 200ha plus at risk on one property alone.
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While discussions between landholders and government are ongoing, local farmer Yvette Frahn said the formation of the Noora Basin Community Working Group in March, and the Puccinellia trials, showed there was an appetite among the local community to tackle the issue with or without government assistance.
She said Puccinellia had shown great promise in areas they'd previously sown on their property.
"It's not a great season for it (the Puccinellia), but it should take off on opening rains next year," she said.
"It's twice as salt tolerant as the next plant species we're aware of. It requires ongoing moisture as well, so what's brilliant about it is it has the ability to pull moisture from these saturated salt pans and tolerate the salt like nothing else.
"It is also high protein and can be quality feed."
Mrs Frahn is hopeful the Puccinellia will be able to used as a management tool for salt-affected land, while also providing a feed resource.
"In a perfect world, we'll pick the areas that are about to become salt-affected before it degenerates into barren land.
"You'll stop cropping that ground, put this Puccinellia in and manage that ground to make sure it never goes bare."
