A strategy focused meeting was held by the new INZ Technical & Trade Association in July 2009 with support from Stephen McNally (Opus International Consultants), Craig Scott (MWH Global), Doug Whimp (Water Dynamics), Phil Darragh (PGG Wrightsons), Paul Donaldson (WaterForce), Terry Heiler (past CEO INZ), Andrew Curtis (CEO INZ).
The key focus of discussions was around how to move forward and develop better outcomes for the trade and irrigators alike with regard to sustainable water management.
Education of Farmers and the Trade: There is a need to better demonstrate the value of efficient irrigation systems to farmers. In many instances farmers still make short term decisions based on CapEx rather than long-term whole of life operational costs. A vicious circle results where pricing pressure drives down design and installation standards leaving framers carrying too much risk of system failure. While there is onus on the trade to ensure the clients are fully informed on what level of service or reliability they are purchasing, maybe a means of lifting long term cost efficiency is by better linking design and installation KPI’s to purchase contracts. The way to make the value of this visible is to provide to the industry some real life case studies with financial risk implications outlined. There is a need for consistency in specifications of both equipment performance and installation standards in quotes. The first project for the Technical and Trade SIG is to develop an education package to meet this challenge. This is likely to attract funding from organisations focused on efficient energy use.
Irrigation Good News Stories: The group continued its discussion around the need to more effectively spread some of the positive messages around the irrigation industry – what can be achieved economically, socially and environmentally through irrigation. The challenge is around meeting the future impacts of climate change on our on-going need for food production for both local consumption and export revenue. It was highlighted that advancement will be closely linked to infrastructure development but that this needs to take account of environmental outcomes.
Water Metering: It was acknowledged that there is a need for an industry led standard on resource monitoring rather than waiting for a regulatory one. In response to demand for better indicators around water use an improved water meter selection and installation standard could be developed as part of the current INZ project developing an Irrigation Installation Code of Practice. This could extend to a model contract for water meter installations as part of the agreement between the irrigation installer and the farmer.
Irrigation Equipment: There are still some commonly used irrigation systems that have inherently poor efficiency through high instantaneous infiltration rates. However they will not be able to continue like this long-term due to allocation limits (especially in regions driven by overall water resource efficiency targets). The group looked at how some of these equipment types could be re-evaluated in cooperation with the manufacturers for both new and renovated system. There was a good sprit of cooperation between the trade partners on the SIG on this matter.
Future Actions: This group is a leading example of organisations within the irrigation industry coming together in working parties to address technical challenges with a common goal of achieving further advances in irrigation industry. Future activities and progress will be reported through this magazine.