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Irrigation Innovation in a Changing Climate Workshop Report

The aim of the workshop was to kick off a process to develop a ten-year irrigation innovation strategy. The workshop, held in Canberra on 16 September 2008, attracted about 100 participants from a broad cross-section of the irrigation industry. It included people from urban water organisations, garden irrigation supply companies, irrigators, policy makers, researchers, manufacturers and rural water supply organisations.

Irrigation innovation in a changing climate

Irrigation Australia Limited (IAL), the National Program for Sustainable Irrigation (NPSI) and the Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures (CRCIF) see the need for a paradigm shift in irrigation innovation. This need has been highlighted further by the climatic conditions of the early 21st Century, but it has been evident for some time. Such a shift would enable the irrigation industry to improve its water use (more)...

Changing Irrigation Systems and Management in the Harvey Irrigation Area

The project is examining issues of water use efficiency (WUE) in the South West Irrigation Area (hereafter called the Harvey Irrigation Area). A significant WUE issue is whether water savings, improved pasture yields and farm productivity can be achieved through sprinkler (centre pivot) irrigation of dairy pasture in comparison with traditional surface bay irrigation (often called flood irrigation). This project is a case study conducted on (more)...

Changing Irrigation Systems and Management in the Harvey Irrigation Area

The Harvey Water Irrigation Area (HWIA) is Western Australia’s prime irrigated dairying area supplying Perth and the south west with more than 40 per cent of its milk. Irrigated agriculture commenced in Harvey with the establishment of a weir in 1916. Since that time, pastures have been watered through surface irrigation of paddocks which over time have been leveled and divided into irrigation bays. When this project was envisaged in 2001, there were no centre (more)...

Knowledge Management in Cotton and Grain Irrigation

The Australian Cotton Cooperative Research Centre through this knowledge management project aimed to develop a better understanding of the knowledge pathways being used by irrigated cotton and grain growers, consultants and support agencies.

The current study focused on how cotton and grain irrigators and their consultants access information about irrigation and generate knowledge to make better irrigation decisions.

Development of value selection method for choosing between alternative soil moisture sensors

The Australian Irrigation Technology Centre (AITC) identified in its 1993 [1] survey of irrigators the low level of adoption of soil moisture sensing devices (less than 7%), despite there being a number of soil water sensors which could be used by irrigators to help schedule irrigation. There is a large range of devices available commercially which make various claims about measuring and monitoring soil moisture status. The operation of these devices is based on a (more)...