Automation of irrigation in the Australian cotton industry has the potential to improve water productivity, whilst addressing challenges of optimising irrigation and managing labour resourcing. This project will provide growers with commercially relevant information about how to best utilise irrigation monitoring tools and decision support systems to optimise surface irrigation. It will also provide advice on the installation and management of automated and autonomous irrigation systems. Whilst the focus is on surface irrigation systems project activities will leverage existing and future work to provide information on pressurised systems such as overhead lateral move systems and subsurface drip systems. The project will improve the prototypes trialled in 2017-18 and will provide growers with an improved understanding of the merits of the latest digital technologies for precise automated irrigation across all four systems.

This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources as part of its Rural R&D for Profit program.