The CRC IF Governing Board met in Canberra on February 24 and I'm pleased to announce a number of new initiatives that were approved at that meeting.

Firstly, we will once more call for expressions of interest from organisations that are keen to deliver CRC IF research products to industry and government. The first round identified three Australian companies interested in becoming manufacturers and distributors for key technologies, and more than 60 interested in becoming the on-ground delivery agents for new services.

Secondly, on a related matter, it was decided the CRC IF’s commercialisation and utilisation activities will be continued out to our windup date of September 30, 2010. We still intend to wrap up all research activities by the end of May this year, but the Board and management recognise that there will be a significant tail of commercialisation and utilisation activities to be completed if we are to deliver maximum value to the Australian irrigation industry. I expect to be able to confirm arrangements for this next month.

Finally, the CRC IF Board expressed a strong vote of thanks to our Program Leaders, who made presentations to the Board about the progress of the programs and plans to bring them to a satisfactory conclusion by the end of June.

I also wish to express my gratitude to Keith Bristow (System Harmonisation), Kelvin Montagu (Education and Communications) and Bill Williamson (Toolkits) for their untiring efforts and commitment to this CRC.

All the best,
Ian Atkinson
Chief Executive Officer

Interested in contributing an abstract to One Water Many Futures? Then you have until Monday 8 March to submit your abstract here. Accepted abstracts will be published in the Conference Abstract Book and on the IAL website.

Confirmed keynote speakers include Professor Kader Asmal, University of Western Cape, South Africa; Dr Sandra Postel, Director Global Water Policy Project, USA; Professor Chandra Madramootoo, Dean Faculty of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences McGill University Canada; George Warne, CEO State Water; Chris Thompson, Director Agricultural Resource Management; and Peter Hayes, Chair of CRC for Irrigation Futures.

More information on the conference speakers can be obtained here.

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The Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures (CRC IF) has been offering MasterClasses since late 2008. The final one being offered is on Solutes, and is to held in Melbourne, 13 – 14 April.

Content to be covered:
• Industry and science context for study of solutes;
• Key principles for understanding salt and nitrates;
• Latest research outcomes;
• Current practices and tools for measuring, analysis and interpretation; and
• Future direction and priority areas for research and practice.

Presenters
• Richard Stirzaker – CRC IF & CSIRO
• Steven Falivene – CRC IF & NSW Industry and Investment (formerly Primary Industries)
• Anne-Maree Boland – RMCG Consultants

Cost for MasterClasses is $770 for early birds, $990 full rate and $550 for CRC IF members and students.

For more information on this MasterClass contact Deborah Atkins on 0415 135 457. To register, click on the link below.

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CRC IF Irrigation Matters Series No. 04/09, Planning and Managing Centre Pivot and Linear Move Irrigation in the Southern Riverina, by Adrian Smith and Sam North is now available online.

Executive Summary
The past few years has seen a rapid increase in the number of overhead irrigators being operated in southern NSW as part of a farmers' push to increase profitability through increased water use efficiency and accurate application.

There is little doubt that centre pivot and linear move (CP/LM) irrigation systems are capable of giving high returns per megalitre of water applied, but these high returns are only possible if crop agronomy and water management practices are of a high standard.
And while these higher returns per megalitre of applied water are possible, this comes at the expense of higher capital and operating costs.

It is important that irrigators contemplating the purchase of CP/LM systems are aware of the positives and negatives, the applicability of their soils and farming systems and their own preparedness (and ability) to accept and adopt a change to their irrigation management.

This manual has been developed to assist irrigators in the southern Riverina who are considering purchasing or who have purchased CP/LM irrigation systems. It has been written specifically for winter cereal and lucerne growers in the irrigation districts of the southern Riverina with the aim of ensuring better decision making regarding the use of scarce irrigation and capital resources. The manual is divided into sections which cover planning, design, installation and operation and maintenance.

Download the full report at the link below.

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Receiving the Daan Retief Trophy at the 2010 Combined Crops, Soils, Horticulture and Weeds Congress has been one of the highlights of Michael van der Laan’s, a CRC IF PhD student.

The Daan Retief Trophy, donated by the first President of the Society, is awarded for outstanding papers. Michael’s paper Estimating leaching losses from mobile and immobile soil water nitrate concentrations was presented during the Soils Physics session and was acknowledged for its excellence.

Michael was supervised by Prof JG Annandale from the University of Pretoria, Prof CC du Preez from the University of the Free State and Dr KL Bristow and Dr RJ Stirzaker from the CRC for Irrigation Futures. Now submitted, his thesis entitled Development, testing and application of a crop nitrogen and phosphorus model to investigate leaching losses at the local scale is based on work done for a Water Research Commission project studying non-point source pollution from agriculture.

In regard to his involvement with the CRC IF, Michael says, “I am extremely grateful to have been involved with the Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures. In addition to providing financial support for our research, the CRC IF has given me the opportunity to network and collaborate with other scientists internationally, most notably Dr Keith Bristow and Dr Richard Stirzaker. The CRC IF has also given me exposure to some of the challenges currently facing the Australian irrigation industry together with potential solutions, many of which are also very relevant in the South African context.”

Michael will be presenting his work at the One Water Many Futures conference in Sydney this coming June.

Michael now holds a position with the South African Sugarcane Research Institute based in Mount Edgecombe, South Africa.

Click on the links below for further information about Michael van der Laan or the Combined Congress.

Combined Congress 2010
Michael van der Laan

This month's feature paper, entitiled Physiological response of cotton to a root zone soil moisture gradient: Implications for partial root zone drying irrigation, comes from Dr Simon White, one of the CRC IF's first PhD graduates and Prof Steven Raine. It was published in the Journal of Cotton Science in 2009. Contact Simon or Steven for a copy of the article.

Abstract
Partial Root Zone Drying (PRD) is an irrigation strategy which involves the alternate drying and wetting of sub-sections of the plant root zone. Savings in crop water use productivity from PRD is a result of changes in the plant biochemical and physiological response from the imposed soil moisture gradient. However, an understanding of the relationship between the soil moisture gradient and plant response is required before PRD can be used to improve crop water use productivity.

The objective of this study was to investigate the response of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) to a soil moisture gradient imposed across the root zone. Cotton plants were grown under greenhouse conditions in split pots. Control treatment pots were well watered on both sides of the split pots and a Non-alternated PRD treatment had water applied to only one side of the split pot with the other allowed to dry over a 24 day period. Soil moisture potential on each side of the split pots was measured along with changes in plant stem sap abscisic acid, sap pH, and stomatal conductance.

The imposed soil moisture gradient resulted in a four-fold increase in xylem sap abscisic acid concentration, peaking at a soil moisture potential of -2,360 kPa. However, this soil moisture gradient did not produce any significant (P<0.05) difference in either xylem sap pH or stomatal conductance. These findings suggest that it may not be possible to maintain the plant water status of cotton grown under commercial field conditions and simultaneously impose a sufficiently large soil moisture gradient across the root zone to induce a PRD response.



Dr Simon White
Prof Steven Raine

The CRC IF finishes in June this year. However, before it ends, we're offering you the opportunity to find out about the research progress and outputs on a range of CRC IF endeavours.

When: 3.30pm (Qld time) Thursday 4th March (after the GRDC Update)

Where: Goondiwindi Technology & Training Centre, 15 Russell St

Presenters include: Bill Williamson CRC IF, David Wigginton Cotton CRC, John Hornbuckle CRC IF & CSIRO, Rod Smith CRC IF & NCEA.

Who should come: irrigation consultants, agronomic consultants, extension staff,
researchers, irrigators, and anyone who is interested.

RSVP with Peter Smith, Summer Zone Leader.

This month we find out what CRC IF PhD graduate Bhakti Devi has been up to. Bhakti completed her thesis on A Framework for Development and Evaluation of Policies and Programs for Urban Irrigation Demand Management.

Bhakti was recently appointed as the Water Strategy Manager for the City of Sydney. She has taken on the responsibility to develop and deliver the outcomes of a Total Water Cycle Management (TWCM) strategy that is aimed at achieving the Sustainable Sydney 2030 water targets of:

• Achieving at least 50% reduction in pollutants being discharged to waterways;
• Meeting at least 10% of water demand with local recycled water sources; and
• No further increases in mains water demand from 2006 levels, despite the expected population growth.

Click on the link below to read more about Bhakti’s PhD research, or to download her thesis.

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