Agronomy and remote sensing to maximise rice water productivity

Rice growers require best management practice guidelines for rice varieties grown under the diverse range of water management practices and regions to maximise grain yield, water productivity and profitability. This project collects this essential data and combines it with data collected and validated over several seasons to produce user friendly variety growing guidelines for new release and current varieties. Crop phenology data is also collected to provide growers with crop development models for panicle initiation and maturity which are valuable for crop management. 

This project also provides valuable information to growers on nitrogen management which is crucial to maximise yield while minimising risk. Nitrogen rate and timing recommendations are provided for each variety and growing method and the project supports the NIR Tissue Test service with accurate NIR calibrations and nitrogen topdressing recommendations. The research also focuses on further development of remote sensing to provide growers with spatial mid-season nitrogen topdressing recommendations which reduce field variability thus increasing grain yield and water productivity.