crops

Healthy Soils: Soil is a National Asset - Corporate Brochure

The Healthy Soils for Sustainable Farms Programme is a wide-ranging, $5 million programme that covers a variety of agricultural sectors across almost all the states of Australia. The current range of agricultural industries involved in the Healthy Soils for Sustainable Farms Programme includes: • Grain and crops • Cotton • Sheep and wool • Sugar • Vegetables • Organics The scale of the projects supported (more)...

Salinity management practice guidelines

A better understanding of plant requirements and the highly efficient management of water has led irrigators to apply water to accurately meet crop needs. This has meant a considerable reduction in the amount of water flushing through the root-zone. As a result, soil salinity levels have risen. Current drought conditions and low water allocations are likely to result in even less water being used to flush salts from the root-zone. The declining quality of water resources means that actively removing (more)...

Use of reclaimed effluent water in Australian horticulture

Due to environmental and economic pressures, the volume of reclaimed water being used in Australia is increasing (Dillon 2000, Radcliffe 2003). One of the major potential, and current, uses of this water is for irrigation of horticultural crops. In recognition of this, Land and Water Australia funded the present project—Use of reclaimed water in Australian horticulture—, which is intended to position the horticultural industry to both assess and develop reuse schemes. There are two main stages. (more)...

Opportunities to breed/select/bioengineer Plant Species to Control Deep Drainage and Nutrient Leakage

Salinity impact on Lower Murray horticulture

The project was developed to test the hypothesis: ‘a depressed leaching efficiency (LE) in the Lower Murray irrigation districts raises the root zone salinity and, improved water use efficiency (WUE) has an upper limit determined by that field’s LE and its variance’. The specific objectives were to: Determine/update the salinity relationships for irrigated horticulture along the Lower (more)...

Improving the water use efficiency of horticultural crops

The results of this project show that there is considerable scope for improving the water use efficiency of fruit production in Australia. The two year project has sought to test the partial rootzone drying (PRD) irrigation method, originally developed for grapevines, in a range of woody perennial horticultural crops. The technique requires that both wet and dry rootzones are simultaneously created. Results with grapes, citrus and pears have given exciting results. (more)...

Implementing partial rootzone drying

The partial rootzone drying (PRD) method of irrigation, originally developed for grapevines, is now being used in a range of perennial tree crops in Australia and achieving some exciting results in citrus and pears, as well as grapes.

The technique requires that wet and dry rootzones are created simultaneously around each plant.

Subsurface Irrigation

Australian studies show an average of 30% of applied irrigation water passes through the root zone without being used by the crops it is intended to sustain. This water either becomes groundwater recharge or is intercepted by drainage networks and contributes to waterway pollution. Subsurface drip irrigation has shown great potential for increasing crop yield and uniformity, while decreasing water use and environmental impact. Importantly, subsurface irrigation applies water directly to the (more)...

Adopting improved use of current water monitoring technology to manage recharge

Rising watertables are a major threat to the sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Future sustainability will depend on the ability of each irrigation farmer to choose paddock-crop-irrigation management combinations that control impacts on watertables on their farm. There is a perception that the technology already exists to enable farmers to manage water sustainably, and that the problem is one of adoption rather than the development of new technology. However, (more)...