Water is wasted

Old Jan 9th 2008, 11:50 am
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Default Water is wasted

I'm in weekly contact with 2 Americans we are working with on new products for agriculural markets. They have the horticultural scientific knowledge and we have the base mineral and the expertise to make the products in a way they were unable to. Win:Win.

They visit everywhere and anywhere that fruit crops are grown so they cover all continents in both the highly civilized countries and the lesser civilized places.

They've done 2 extensive trips through Australia now and were pretty shocked at what they saw. The irrigation systems and methods used by this country are innefficient and antiquated leading to wasted water. Third world countries in Africa and Central America are using systems far in advance of what is used here.

Yes, of course it's a generalisation but for them to comment on it, and knowing their background, I reckon there must be something to their claim.

The Murray Darling basin is THE food growing centre of Aus and is in deep doodoo's due to lack of water as indeed is WA. Perhaps along with looking at desalination plants and pumping water for thousands of miles some serious emphasis should be placed upon how the water is actually being used within agricultural circles.

Independantly I've spoken to someone in Cairns who is involved with livestock farming throughout QLD and he does see large areas of pastureland purposely flooded with water to the extent the whole pastureland is under water for days. Now that is not good use of water !
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Old Jan 10th 2008, 1:39 am
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Default Re: Water is wasted

Not just agricultural circles, I am constantly astounded by the huge amounts of water wasted on gardens and landscaping.....

There should be more emphasis on educating people about waterwise gardens and planting species that can survive on minimal water, plus I think the rebates for water tanks and the like should be bigger.

Just my tuppence worth
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Old Jan 10th 2008, 2:17 am
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Default Re: Water is wasted

Shhhh, don't ruin people's dream of an enormous garden full of every type of plant and flower imaginable that uses 3 gigalitres of water a day - it's the Australian dream!
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Old Jan 10th 2008, 2:29 am
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Default Re: Water is wasted

Adelaide is taking a step towards doing something constructive: http://www.sawater.com.au/NR/rdonlyr...andpricing.pdf
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Old Jan 10th 2008, 2:40 am
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Default Re: Water is wasted

Originally Posted by Bix
I'm in weekly contact with 2 Americans we are working with on new products for agriculural markets. They have the horticultural scientific knowledge and we have the base mineral and the expertise to make the products in a way they were unable to. Win:Win.

They visit everywhere and anywhere that fruit crops are grown so they cover all continents in both the highly civilized countries and the lesser civilized places.

They've done 2 extensive trips through Australia now and were pretty shocked at what they saw. The irrigation systems and methods used by this country are innefficient and antiquated leading to wasted water. Third world countries in Africa and Central America are using systems far in advance of what is used here.

Yes, of course it's a generalisation but for them to comment on it, and knowing their background, I reckon there must be something to their claim.

The Murray Darling basin is THE food growing centre of Aus and is in deep doodoo's due to lack of water as indeed is WA. Perhaps along with looking at desalination plants and pumping water for thousands of miles some serious emphasis should be placed upon how the water is actually being used within agricultural circles.

Independantly I've spoken to someone in Cairns who is involved with livestock farming throughout QLD and he does see large areas of pastureland purposely flooded with water to the extent the whole pastureland is under water for days. Now that is not good use of water !
I recently watched a programme about a water company in the Hervey Bay area of Qld. They'd previously pumped 'waste' water out to sea, but with greater restriction being placed on what they could discharge, they decided to set up a water treatment facility and sell the treated water as, in effect, liquid fertiliser. Guess what, not a single taker. It wasn't until the company bought an old rundown sugar cane farm and turned it into the most productive in the area, that any other farmer was in the least interested.
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Old Jan 10th 2008, 2:56 am
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Default Re: Water is wasted

Rice and Cotton farmers use absolutely huge amounts of water to grow these crops.

You just have to ask yourself why Australa is growing this type of crop when we can easily import these products. The land could then be used for other types of less thirsty crops.
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Old Jan 10th 2008, 3:40 am
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Default Re: Water is wasted

Originally Posted by POW148
Rice and Cotton farmers use absolutely huge amounts of water to grow these crops.

You just have to ask yourself why Australa is growing this type of crop when we can easily import these products. The land could then be used for other types of less thirsty crops.
Exactly!

More efficient irrigation and water-wise living are only part of the picture. Australia may have to be prepared to compromise on it's 'made/grown in Oz' bias and accept that the climate is not suited to crops such as rice.
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Old Jan 10th 2008, 5:14 am
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Default Re: Water is wasted

Originally Posted by bourbon-biscuit
Exactly!

More efficient irrigation and water-wise living are only part of the picture. Australia may have to be prepared to compromise on it's 'made/grown in Oz' bias and accept that the climate is not suited to crops such as rice.
i dont know why they worry so much about food being made here when 99% of everything else in the shops is made in China.
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Old Jan 10th 2008, 5:38 am
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Default Re: Water is wasted

Originally Posted by bridie
i dont know why they worry so much about food being made here when 99% of everything else in the shops is made in China.
Exactly. If it's too expensive to grow here due to drought it whatever else, import it.
Bananas $15/kg? No worries. Import them from Costa Rica for 99c/kg.
Consumers will be happy and so will Costa Rica and Aussie farmers will soon reduce their prices or they can grow biodiesel instead.
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Old Jan 10th 2008, 8:12 am
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Default Re: Water is wasted

Originally Posted by Wendy
Adelaide is taking a step towards doing something constructive: http://www.sawater.com.au/NR/rdonlyr...andpricing.pdf
So are the Water Corporation in WA:

http://www.watercorporation.com.au/W...wise_index.cfm

You also get rebates on things like water efficient washing machines:
http://portal.water.wa.gov.au/portal...terwiseRebates
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Old Jan 10th 2008, 8:24 am
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Default Re: Water is wasted

Originally Posted by NeilP
So are the Water Corporation in WA:

http://www.watercorporation.com.au/W...wise_index.cfm

You also get rebates on things like water efficient washing machines:
http://portal.water.wa.gov.au/portal...terwiseRebates

Yeah, we have them too. I think SA is getting the idea from WA - lets hope the rest of the country catches on
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Old Jan 10th 2008, 11:07 am
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Post Re: Water is wasted

Some excellent points have come out in the above posts

With global warming, or is it natural climate changes, some traditional crops grown within a range of latitudes may no longer be sustainable.

Throwing huge amounts of water at the crop is a short term vision and one that will eventually prove to be unsustainable because the climate has just
become too severe for economic production.

The answer is to grow it farther North or farther South as the case may be. Of course within a country that land may not be available or indeed it may be unsuitable for other reasons. Hence the logical thing to do is to grow something more suited to the new conditions.

So yes, let's buy banans from Costa Rica and grow oranges instead or even palm oil.

The point about reluctance to change is also true. We would have no chance of convincing farmers to use the product we have just launched as the attitude is one of "we haven't done that before, why would we need to do that". Well dumbass, it's so you can reduce wastage and use less water.

Instead we are talking to the large corporate farmers who do run their business by computer analysis of their whole production process from tilling to reaping. The small farmer Joe will pick up on it soon enough.

Did you know for instance that the largest pineapple grower in the world ploughs in as much as 20% of the crop each year ? It's a total right-off.
High loss figures are recorded across many fruits and our stuff can prevent most of these losses so you can see what a difference it will make to production figures and the bottom line. It can also save 20% water consumption and improve photosynthesis.

And good 'ol Costa Rica is eager to start using it but it's taken me 3 months to get some pretty basic paperwork endorsed by 3 government departments and the Costa Rican embassy which will allow us to sell to them.

Cotton is on the list as a potential target market too.
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