Minister Reece Whitby visits FOGO compost facility and Willgrow Farm in Gingin

Better known as FOGO (food organics and garden organics), food and organic waste is sent to landfill, which produces 13 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in Australia annually.

One of the funding recipients, Go Organics, Boonanarring, has received $3.5m which will go towards an $8m site expansion.

WA Environment Minister Reece Whitby inspected the facility on Wednesday of last week to see the composting process in action.

The tour began at nearby Willgrow Farming which has composting windrows - or earthworm beds - to produce worm juice, replacing the farm's need for fertiliser.

The worm juice collects on a tarp underneath the compost pile and is transferred into a fertigation system.

Willgrow Farming principal Valkan De Villiers collects an average of 2000 litres of worm juice per week, which gets put back onto the soils.

Mr De Villiers moved to Gingin from a wheat and sheep enterprise at Tammin, and now produces wheat and lucerne.

When he moved to the 89 hectare farm eight years ago, the sandy soils were said to have been "unfarmable", however he has been improving soil quality, conditions and biology ever since.

"We couldn't keep pouring fertiliser on sand," Mr De Villiers said.

About three years into the worm juice program, he noticed a "visible" difference in crop health and observed fewer insects.

The transition from traditional fertilisers has been slow, however Mr De Villiers recommends giving it a go as a means of reducing costs.

"Chemical today and organic tomorrow doesn't work," he said.

"Take little steps and never hold anything back that the crop needs.

"Plants are addicted to chemicals, you need to wean them off it."

Mr De Villiers said many farmers were hesitant to change their farming practices, especially ones that were organic.

"Sometimes they don't want to step outside of their comfort zone, and they really don't want to be the odd one out," he said.

Go Organics managing director Donovan Farrell said although Mr De Villiers' soils were mostly sand, the soil "stuck" to the root system and clumped easily, which he said was a sign of good microbiology.

He said soil quality was the first step for soil to be able to effectively sequester carbon.

Mr Farrell has been working with Murdoch University to provide science-backed research around composting.

The compost produced at Go Organics contains the right amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium for WA soils with less leaching.

"The person we need to be most sensitive to is the farmer, because their livelihoods are at stake," Mr Farrell said.

"A lot of people are interested and working in pasture improvement, we just have to make sure that we have the science to back it up."

At the Go Organics site, a robot was bagging and wrapping pallets of compost.

The facility produces one million bags of compost each year, or 15,000 tonnes which is sold through retail outlets.

The $8m upgrade, which has just been given the green light, will see compost output increased to 124,000t annually.

The FOGO comes from five metropolitan councils and the compost and topsoil products are used in landscaping or mine rehabilitation programs.

Mr Farrell said all of this extra compost could be taken up by the agricultural industry, however he was competing with nitrogen-rich chicken manure for the same market space.

Mr Whitby said it would be a "great leap forward" and a "game changer" if more farmers used FOGO compost.

"I've seen FOGO being used in landscaping by councils, I've seen it domestically in buying bags from the supermarkets, that's also good but the real impact is going to be in agriculture and horticulture, this is where we're going to have some huge outcome," Mr Whitby said.

"The studies that have been done at Murdoch University are sensational news.

"If we can implore farmers that are trying to look at new techniques and new ways of dealing with our changing climate, anything we can do to reduce the need for water and increase productivity is a fantastic thing.

"It shouldn't be judged as waste, it's a valuable commodity which can enrich soils."