annually is the worth of horticulture – Australia's second largest rural production industry.
The hot, catastrophic summer of 2019-2020 followed an extended dry period for much of NSW and its horticultural growers, reducing water storage across many orchards. Many farmers had to make tough decisions on which of their blocks to focus efforts, and those to sacrifice and leave unwatered.
Inform and improve management decisions
The Climate Smart Horticulture Pilot is part of the broader $6.7 million Climate Smart Pilots project. It aims to increase resilience to climate change by improving the understanding and use of digital agriculture technologies.
In the space of just 1 year, the Climate Smart Horticulture Pilot is helping change the way difficult decisions in farming are being made through the adoption of on-farm digital technology. Better data on soil moisture trends is changing how irrigation is managed.
Adapting farming strategies
The pilot demonstrates how implementing digital agriculture technologies within a commercial operation can improve climate resilience through adaptive management decisions. The insights can advance horticulture yield, quality and productivity.
Find out more about the Climate Smart Horticulture Pilot.
“It would have motivated me to make the change earlier, and perhaps it would have saved some of the areas sacrificed.”
– Ian, apple and cherry grower near Orange