Enhancing drought resilience in horticulture
Ensuring the health and longevity of horticultural crops through drought and recovery is the focus of a collaborative Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub project spanning four states.
Data collected from a network of wine grape, almond and citrus production sites will provide real-time information on canopy development and soil moisture, helping growers to improve water use efficiency and decision making.
Funded through the Federal Government’s Future Drought Fund, the project is being led by the South Australian hub, with involvement from Victoria, Tasmania and Southern NSW. The North-West Irrigated Horticulture Node, led by the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre, is the only participating Victorian region.
Industry-focused applied researchers Patrick O'Brien and Xiaoyi (Eva) Wang from the University of Adelaide recently visited Mildura to install cameras at one site. Using the timelapse feature on the cameras, they will track canopy growth over the growing season.
“The cameras themselves act as a sensor, like soil moisture probes or weather stations, providing an on-demand source of current vineyard status,” Patrick said.
“We can also use this new canopy measurement data together with pre-existing data streams to improve predictions of things like yield and timing of different operations, as well as water use efficiency.”
Tim Cummins, who has been conducting drought consultations for the Mallee node, said the data collected at each site will help irrigators to continuously improve their ability to apply the right amount of water at the right time.
“Importantly, the biophysical information being gathered through this project is being recorded on orchard and vineyard maps that will help irrigators make the tough decisions they will be confronted with in extreme droughts,” Tim said.
“In a repeat of the millennium drought (1996 – 2010), irrigators will again have to dry some patches off.
“In the consultations we’ve done so far, people said they tried to stretch their water as far as they could last time. But knowing which blocks are performing well or underperforming and which are due for replanting, next time they’d make hard and fast decisions about which patches to dry off in order to concentrate the available water on their best patches.
“The modelling developed through the project will really inform that decision-making process.”
Eva said the cross-hub project was also a good starting point for the development of future work.
“We are fostering good relationships between the hubs in different states, and we have great support from growers,” she said. “We’re building a very good resource now that we can definitely use in the future.”
The Centre will continue to share updates on the project – Modern Drought Management for the Health and Longevity of Perennial Horticulture Plants – in future newsletters.
We are also interested in talking to any growers who interested in being involved. Please contact us at MRIC-info@unimelb.edu.au.