Projects

Objective:

To improve water use efficiency in Australian irrigated agriculture. The main area of focus was in the area of farm irrigation technology, not only to allow the use of less water per unit of product, but also at the same time minimise distribution losses and accessions to groundwater in the lower part of the Murray Darling Basin.

Collaboration:

The projects in the area of improving water efficiency were the result of a partnership managed by Land and Water Australia (LWA) and funded by LWA, Murray Darling Basin Commission, State Government agencies, Irrigation Water Providers, irrigators and a number of other agencies and corporations.

Results:

Some thirty different projects dealt with areas ranging from guidelines for soil moisture sensors, the shape of irrigation furrows, regulated deficit irrigation and partial rootzone drying, capillary root zone irrigation, to the construction of best practice earthen irrigation channel banks and the structure and infrastructure options for the efficient delivery of water.

The benefits from the investment were widespread and included:

• Less water used by irrigators in producing a given level of crop or pasture yield
• Less wastage of water through improved infrastructure and more effective delivery systems by water providers
• Lowered accessions to groundwater leading to less salt export to rivers
• Less nutrient export to waterways

Measures of Success:

The net value of saved water from the WUE investments in the project is assumed at $80/ML. This provides a value of the annual saving of water due to the overall project investment of $4.9 million every year.