Demonstration investment key

Investing in smart farms and demonstration sites: boosting irrigation innovation

 

One of the key recommendations from the recent “Irrigation Decision Making and Innovation Report” is increased investment in smart farms and demonstration sites. These sites will give horticulture growers hands-on opportunities to explore and engage with advanced irrigation technologies.

 

Download the Irrigation Decision Making and Innovation Report.

 

The report was released late last month in Mildura by two Vic Hub partners: the North-West Irrigated Horticulture Node (Mallee Regional Innovation Centre) and Capacity Building lead (La Trobe University).

It highlights these investments as critical steps in supporting the future of horticulture.

The report looks to understand how Sunraysia irrigators’ experiences of new technologies and changes in government water policy and the environment can help prepare the region for the impacts of future drought.

Lead author, La Trobe researcher Dr Natalie Araújo, spoke to ABC Mildura-Swan Hill at the launch about the research project.

“A number of key findings emerged around issues of water availability and water policy, the experiences of growers in the region around new technologies, some of the barriers to those new technologies, but also opportunities for knowledge sharing, the role of demonstration sites as sites of unbiased knowledge sharing, and an opportunity to really engage with some of these new technologies – see them in the region, play with them the way you would kind of test drive a new car – and also issues around labour management and skills management and development,” Natalie said.

“Sometimes there is perception that technology is going to replace the role of boots on the ground and that just isn’t the case at all.

“An unexpected issue that emerged was the challenges of managing all of the cascading uncertainties in the region and how that affects people’s mental health and opportunities for the creation of what we call mental wealth or resilience in wellbeing.”

Natalie said it emerged quickly during the study that the Sunraysia region has a very different history and experience of irrigation management and water management in general.

“In some other parts of the country, discussions are still really focused around water efficiency and how we improve efficiency,” she said.

“In response to the millennium drought, this region adopted step changes – wide-scale step changes like drip irrigation – and so the question here is not so much about water efficiency it’s about water availability.”

 

This study was an extension of research conducted as part of the Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub project, Modern Drought Management for the Health and Longevity of Perennial Horticulture Plants. 

The project was funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and involved four drought and resilience hubs: South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and Southern NSW.

 

This article was originally published on the MRIC website. This is an abridged version.