Farmer energy support
HORTICULTURE growers in the Granite Belt and eastern Darling Downs region will benefit from on-farm support and assistance to improve their water and energy efficiency through the State Government’s Rural Water Use Efficiency Initiative funding.
Growcom has been provided with $300,000 in RWUEI funding to deliver the project to those horticulture growers in the Granite Belt and eastern Darling Downs regions currently experiencing reduced water allocations.
Assistance will be available through irrigation, pump and fertigation assessments, Hort360 BMP as well as providing technical specialist advice at workshops and on-farm.
Water access and pumprelated energy continue to be major issues across all horticultural operations, with good irrigation management practices strongly linked to improvements in crop quality and quantity.
The valuable services delivered through RWUEI will support horticulture growers as they continue to improve on-farm water and energy efficiencies while moving to a more sustainable resource management plan.
As the RWUEI programs enter its 18th year, Growcom would like to thank the Queensland Government for the long-term investment.
Through the RWUEI program Growcom has:
Assisted horticulture growers re-purpose 11,000ML of irrigation water
Delivered workshops to more than 10,000 attendees
Developed a large range of resources
Assisted more than 1600 growers access incentives to improve management practices, with a more than three-to-one return on investment for every dollar invested by the government.
RWUEI has proven to be a successful delivery model to enable growers to make effective change, build capacity within the community and provide sound return on investment for all parties concerned.
Through this model Growcom will continue to work with the government to implement change management within the horticulture sector.
However there still remains a significant question over whether RWUEI will receive future funding so it can continue to deliver the efficiencies and results to date right across the state’s irrigated agricultural industries.
Growcom joins with Queensland Farmers’ Federation in calling on all levels of government to continue to acknowledge the role of irrigated agriculture in supplying food, fibre and foliage and the income it generates, particularly in regional communities post 2017–18.
❝Water
access and pump-related energy continue to be major issues across all operations.