Summary

The Stirlings to Coast Farmers (SCF) Producer Technology Uptake Program (PTUP) Water Use Efficiency trial involves the implementation of digital technologies that help raise grower’s awareness of weather variability and methods to improve overall on-farm water use efficiency. Ultimately, we want to lead our grower members onto a successful digital technology adoption path that helps improves their overall farm productivity & profitability.

This two-part program will involve a workshop-based training component first, followed by a broad-scale member trial which utilises low-cost rain-gauge devices scattered across 24 farming organisations throughout the Great Southern region of WA. This rainfall data will be collated to produce rainfall variability maps each week, and a final rainfall value map and yield potential map will be produced at the end of the season. Producers will be able to then critically analyse their management processes and identify potential shortcomings where their actual yield is lower than their potential yields.

At project conclusion, producers will ultimately have a better understanding of how digital technologies can be utilised to better inform decision-making processes that will improve farm productivity, and how to best implement them from experience.

Program

AgriFood Innovation

Research Organisation

Stirlings to Coast Farmers Inc