Irrigation Optimiser
Irrigation Optimiser helps you to decide what irrigated crops to plant on your farm based on water availability.
- Who this tool is for
- Questions this tool answers
- What this tool does
- Inputs
- Outputs
- Reliability
- History
- Support available
- Where to get it
- Cost
Read about our selection process for including tools on Climate Kelpie
Who this tool is for
Irrigation growers across Australia.
Questions this tool answers
- What crop should I plant?
- Where on the farm should I plant it?
- Should I irrigate the crop?
- How much water should I use on each crop?
What this tool does
Irrigation Optimiser is a web-based tool that identifies the optimal allocation of water and land for your irrigated farming system.
It calculates expected yield, costs, amount of water, optimal area, gross margin and profit for each crop.
Inputs
You enter information about your own farm, such as:
- farm description
- water sources
- crops you could grow
- soil type
- expected costs
- expected prices
Outputs
Based on your inputs, the Irrigation Optimiser displays the results (e.g. amount of water to apply to maximise profit over the whole farm) in a simple format in your web browser.
See Figure 1 for an example.
Reliability
Irrigation Optimiser has been extensively validated by irrigation growers across eastern Australia.
See a list of irrigation projects currently using Irrigation Optimiser.
History
Irrigation Optimiser was developed by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Queensland).
Support available
An online reference manual is available (pdf, 1.1 MB).
Help is available from an online forum
Support is available from Daniel Rodriguez, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Queensland):
Email: d.rodriguez@uq.edu.au
Phone: 07 4688 1437
Where to get it
Irrigation Optimiser runs on the web
(You may be prompted to download free software to run the application. Please accept the installation, and Irrigation Optimiser will run.)
Contact Dr Daniel Rodriguez:
Email: d.rodriguez@uq.edu.au
Phone: 07 4688 1437
For more information, visit Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland
Cost
Free