CRDC: Transforming water productivity in Australia’s cotton systems

Opportunity for

• CRDC is seeking ideas for water RD&E activities that will deliver against the CRDC Strategic RD&E Plan 2023-2028 outcome, “By 2033, cotton-farming systems are better adapted to the future – limited water, more variable and extreme climate, and input constraints”.
• Multi-partner, interdisciplinary, and cross sector collaborations that bring together growers, researchers, technology providers, and service industries are encouraged.
• This EOI is for preliminary proposals only. Proposals assessed as having the greatest potential will be invited to develop a full research proposal.

Opportunity description

Industry challenge

Water availability is a major constraint on Australian cotton production systems. With climate change expected to intensify climate variability and further limit water access, improving water productivity is essential to sustaining cotton yields. For irrigators, water can be up to 60% of their asset base and they need to get a return from it. 

There are approximately 1300 irrigated cotton growers in Australia located predominately in the Murray Darling Basin. Results from the Australian cotton water benchmarking program show an annual water productivity improvement rate of 8–9% between 1997 and 2007. Since 2007 water productivity gains have largely plateaued, with year‑to‑year variation now driven more by climate than by management. This slowdown in improvement is both a challenge and an opportunity. The factors influencing on‑farm water productivity are broad, with research showing that performance is shaped not only by irrigation decisions but also by system‑level constraints such as delivery infrastructure, slope, soils, crop health, farming systems and labour availability.

Current opportunity

Given the diversity of factors affecting water productivity, and the emerging potential of new technologies, the scope of this EOI is deliberately wide. 

While new technologies, including emerging sensing, data and analytics capabilities, are increasing the availability of crop, soil and climate information, the challenge for the irrigation industry is translating these technological advances into consistent, on‑farm improvements in water productivity. The priority is to move to practical, system‑level solutions that improve the timeliness, consistency and impact of water management within real‑world farming constraints. 

Proposals could address but are not limited to one or more of the following grower and stakeholder identified water RD&E priority areas:

• System interactions affecting water productivity e.g. interactions between waterlogging, disease, nutrition and irrigation management strategies
• Irrigation scheduling: Enabling technologies, tools and strategies including data driven decision support
• Optimising irrigation timing to maximise yield under both full and partial irrigation strategies
• Novel approaches that deliver measurable improvements in water productivity

Find out more and submit your EOI through the CRDC website here. 

Opportunity background

CRDC has a long history of investment in water RD&E across a range of areas including precision irrigation technologies, irrigation system design, and evaporation mitigation. For more information visit the website here. 

Potential other applications

The majority of agricultural industries use water for broadacre irrigation, including the sugar, grains, rice, dairy and fodder industries. Depending on the solution proposed there is potential for adoption in other agriculture sectors.