WATER MANAGEMENT ▶▶▶
between water and oxygen. When you’re flooding, for the first 12 to 24 hours the plant is unable to grow because it’s saturated with wa- ter. If you are flood irrigating and a day later there is a big rain event, that rain is gone. You cannot capture that in the soil, because the soil is already saturated. With drip irrigating, the rain can go into the gaps and it will be saved in your soil profile. You can then skip irrigation because you have water in your soil.”
N-Drip opened its Australian business last year. “We’ve been in Australia for two years, but in the first year we worked on business develop- ment and getting feedback from organisations and individual farmers. The company is doing really well. We have grown a lot. I started out as a one-man show but now there are eight of us.”
Until recently N-Drip was only selling an irriga- tion system with a 22-millimetre diameter.
‘Water problems will not go away’
General manager Udi David Stern of N-Drip in Australia estimates that 60% to 70% of farms in Australia are still flood irrigated. “In a country where we have one of the best farm- ing capabilities in the world, with for exam- ple cotton of the best quality and yield, we are still flood irrigating. Because it’s simple. The water is being wasted a place that has had the worst drought ever. Even if there was a bit of rain recently, the water problems will not go away.” David Stern explains that N-Drip still allows farmers to use flood irrigation later, if need- ed. “We do not touch the existing infrastruc- ture for flood irrigation. A farmer who uses N-Drip and wants to use flood irrigation the following year, or wants to add some more water at peak times, can still do that.” Farmers can also react to the prices of their products in the markets. If the prices of sugar cane, cotton or maize drop, they don’t have to grow as much as they could, but can de- cide to use less land. Farmers can look at N-Drip tape as a commodity, like seeds or fertiliser. “You can decide how much you want to invest in the tape next season.”
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“That was mainly used in horticulture, with rows of 100 to 200 metres,” David Stern says. “But broadacre starts at 300 metres and goes up to a thousand metres per row. That’s why we have introduced a system with a 44-milli- metre diameter. That can take us up to 600 metres. It provides a solution for most of the broadacre irrigators.”
The N-Drip irrigation tape has to be changed every year. “Because we don’t use filters. In any case, the tape has to be taken out every year. Our tape is 100% recyclable and the price is still low, compared to a standard drip irrigation system.”
Environmental benefits Last year nine Australian farmers adopted the N-Drip irrigation system. This year the number will be a lot higher, says David Stern. “It’s look- ing good. We’re showing that we are saving
water and getting extra yields.” N-Drip has also entered the dry land market. “Farmers who tra- ditionally only rely on rain, see that they have a solution that is cheap enough and can in- crease their yields,” according to the general manager. “We’ve had uptake from sugar cane farmers from the far north of Queensland. They are using it now.”
This year N-Drip will be working with sugar cane farmers from along the Queensland coast. The company was approached by an or- ganisation that was looking for a solution that can reduce the amount of nitrogen that goes into the reef. David Stern: “When you use a drip system, that nitrogen stays in the top layer of the soil. When you are using fertiliser in the drip, you can monitor it. It won’t be flushed with the water. With flood irrigation the nitro- gen goes into water systems and then leaks into the reef...”
General manager Udi David Stern of N-Drip Australia: “Most farmers would say that they are rich in land and poor in water.”
David Stern emphasises that water savings make N-Drip an interesting investment for farmers. “In all of our trials, in Australia, the US, Israel and Africa, we have had water sav- ings of at least 20%. We even had a case where we saved 65%. Most farmers would say that they are rich in land and poor in water. They don’t just look at the money they save...”
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 22 May 2020
He explains that farmers grow according to the allocation of water that they have. “If I am a farmer and have a thousand megalitres, and I need ten megalitres per hectare, I can only grow on hundred hectares. If I then save 20% of water, I can grow 20% more cotton. So, the water savings equate to additional growth. And more yield from that paddock.”
PHOTO: N-DRIP
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