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Howard Rother of Nangwee, west of Toowoomba, is pictured in the 11-hectare cotton crop, which he used to trial the N-Drip system this year. N-Drip helps farmers switch from flood to precise gravity-powered, microirrigation.

N-Drip a game changer

By Fiona Gowers

An irrigation method that promises to increase yield, save water, cut fertiliser costs and reduce energy consumption by up to 70 per cent sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

Well, N-Drip, which helps farmers switch from flood to precise gravity-powered, microirrigation is bringing big smiles to the faces of broadacre graingrowers throughout southern Queensland and NSW.

The Israeli-designed system provides an irrigation plan that claims to maximise yield and comes with technology that advises when and how often to irrigate and fertilise. It also predicts yield.

N-Drip Australia general manager Udi David Stern said, crucially and uniquely, the system had made drip irrigation affordable for broadacre farmers in Australia.

“With flood, you will always have lower yields as you are soaking the plants and they become stressed,” he said. “You then wait seven to 14 days before you soak and stress the plants again.

“With drip irrigation, you can monitor how much water you need, still allowing moisture around the plants and you can turn it on or off as needed.

“Also, one tap evenly irrigates the whole area. If a big storm is brewing, you turn off the tap and use the rain. If it doesn’t come, you turn it on again.

“The problem with flood is that you are always gambling. You either miss the rain or the soil profile is so soaked with water that it runs off and flows into drainage.”

While N-Drip boasts application abilities in grain crops, horticulture and cane, Mr David Stern said it was particularly good at increasing yields and saving water in thirsty cotton crops.

“We’ve proven over the past two seasons that N-Drip is an amazing solution for cotton,” he said.

“We have four farmers on the Darling Downs and NSW who have saved up to 54pc of their water and grown an extra bale.

“We are helping farmers to save their most important asset - water. The proof is in the pudding… 30, 40, 50 per cent water saving and higher yields. What more could you want?!”

Indeed, this year Howard Rother of Nangwee, west of Toowoomba, trialled the N-Drip system in 11 hectares of his 70ha of cotton, beside a flood-irrigated crop.

Both blocks had identical histories - fallowed for three years and planted the same day with the same variety in a single skip row set-up.

Mr Rother said he was stunned when the drip field achieved 11.5 bales/ ha compared with the flood, which was 7.5.

“It was a remarkable result, which definitely exceeded all of my expectations,” he said. “The difference between 7.5 bales and 11.5 meant the system more than paid for itself in a year.“

The bales per megalitre result also paint a clear picture, with 3ML/ha applied to the drip field for a yield of 3.667 bales, while the flood field was grown on 4ML/ha to yield 1.875 bales/ML.

“When you think we are producing 50pc more cotton with a 26pc saving in water over the same area, we know we are achieving something substantial with N-Drip,” Mr Rother said.

“The considerable water saving meant we could plant a barley crop straight back into that field. I’ll be interested to see the outcome when we harvest it later this month.”

The results are enough proof for Mr Rother that N-Drip is worth investing in. “We have installed two more fields, [bringing it to] 45ha of 150ha cropped in total,” he said.

Hub established to help tackle industry challenges

Queensland’s Agtech industry is rapidly growing as the development of innovation and technology improves efficiency for producers across the supply chain.

With agricultural technology tipped to become Australia’s next $100 billion sector by 2030, a new Hub in Toowoomba is helping bridge the gap between industry challenges and problem solvers.

The Agtech and Logistics Hub officially opened in May 2021 and is a platform for start-ups, entrepreneurs, academia, government, industry and innovators to connect, develop and adopt real-world solutions.

Hub manager Owen Williams said with technology moving so quickly, time was needed to evaluate what is required to be successful.

The sector is worth about $18.5 billion to Queensland’s economy.

“With many innovators in Queensland, the Hub Concierge program has been busy joining the right innovators with key industry contacts to solve the challenges and sometimes it’s just about joining the right people,” Mr Williams said.

“We’re grateful to welcome a wide variety of tech businesses to the Hub, because it’s important we have this diverse cohort to work with.”

Some of the innovative businesses involved in the Hub include N-Drip Gravity Micro Irrigation, Fly the Farm, Frontier Voice and Data and mOOvement GPS Cattle Tags.

N-Drip Australia general manager Udi Da-

The multi-million dollar AgTech Hub is jointly funded by the Queensland Government in association with the FKG Group, TSBE, University of Southern Queensland and the University of Queensland.

To assist with fast-tracking the adoption of innovative solutions, monthly Meet Up events are held in partnership with Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise (TSBE) to encourage networking and collaboration.

In October, more than 120 people gathered at Wellcamp Airport to tour the Regional Trade Distribution centre and discuss global supply chains management options.

A Q&A panel was held with John Wagner from Wagner Corporation, Jamie Kennedy from Seaway Logistics and Al Fullerton from Mandalay Venture Partners.

Hub community manager Stephen Dummett said the Meet Ups had been “greatly successful” in bringing together some of the brightest minds in Agtech.

“The evenings are always well attended by a great cross-section of the Agtech ecosystem, which bodes well for an industry-led innovation hub,” he said.

“We’ve been able to discuss a number of important industry topics including autonomy in agriculture and Open Innovation Challenges.”

In 2022, the Agtech and Logistics Hub will continue to make the economy more resilient and companies more competitive through its vision to diversify the agricultural value chain.