Irrigation Optimiser helps growers to decide what irrigated crops to plant based on water availability. The tool may have applicability for vegetable producers, but – like CropMate – all the development work and testing has been carried out with rice or grain producers.
Irrigation Optimiser is a web-based tool that identifies the optimal allocation of water and land for a grower’s irrigated farming system. It calculates expected yield, costs, amount of water, optimal area, gross margin and profit for each crop.
The aim of the irrigation optimiser is to help growers be better prepared to:
- Cope with the impact of increased climate variability and decreased reliability in water supply.
- Benefit or reduce exposure from high market volatility, and minimise the impact of the cost-price squeeze.
Irrigation Optimiser can help growers achieve the aim by modelling the impact of alternative agronomic practices and whole-of-farm irrigation strategies on the trade-offs between whole-farm profitability ($/ML), economic risk and environmental outcomes for farm businesses across Australia. The development team has used eight case studies in NSW and Qld to validate the model.
To use the tool, you enter information about your own farm, such as:
- Farm description
- Water sources
- Crops you could grow
- Soil type
- Expected costs
- Expected prices
Based on your inputs, the Irrigation Optimiser displays the results (e.g. amount of water to apply to maximise profit over the whole farm) in a simple format in your web browser.
Click HERE to visit the site and download this software. Alternatively contact Dr Daniel Rodriguez – d.rodriguez@uq.edu.au – for more information.