Irrigated agricultural development in northern Australia: Value-chain challenges and opportunities

Ash, Andrew; Gleeson, Trish; Hall, Murray; Higgins, Andrew; Hopwood, Garry; MacLeod, Neil D.; Paini, Dean; Poulton, Perry; Prestwidge, Di; Webster, Tony; Wilson, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2017.04.010

Cited by 28 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Ash et al 2017, Cruickshank 2020. Additionally, recent satellite tracking showed that geese from different breeding floodplain areas returned to the Greater Darwin region during the late dry-early wet season over F I G U R E 6 Locations (circles) and movements (lines) between color-coded land use types and times of the day for 1 magpie goose (BS203) over 14 days from 27 October to 9 November 2017 in the agricultural area of Berry Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.…”

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confidence: 99%

Seasonal space use and habitat selection in magpie geese: implications for reducing human‐wildlife conflicts

et al. 2022

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Negative interactions between waterbirds and people are increasing. Waterbirds feeding on agricultural crops cause significant losses to farmers worldwide, but so far most research to address these conflicts has been conducted on migratory species in the temperate northern hemisphere. We investigated the space use and habitat selection of the magpie goose (Anseranas semipalmata), a taxonomically distinct waterbird endemic to Australia and southern Papua New Guinea. In tropical northern Australia, magpie geese are protected but are increasingly persecuted by farmers to protect crops during the late dry–early wet season (~Sep–Jan), a bottleneck of natural resources for waterbirds in the monsoonal tropics. Using satellite telemetry of 38 geese spread across 3 seasons (2016–2017, 2017–2018, 2018–2019), we evaluated daily and seasonal space use, individual site fidelity, and habitat selection to determine the extent of use of agricultural fields by geese, and the spatiotemporal scales at which management should be undertaken. Geese used relatively small daily areas (x̄ = 8.2 km2) consistently throughout the late dry–early wet season, and repeatedly used agricultural fields, forested bushlands, and local wetlands. Geese used comparatively large seasonal areas (x̄ = 219.5 km2) encompassing several agricultural areas, and had a low mean overlap between successive weekly core activity areas, indicating that site fidelity rapidly weakened over time. These results suggest that farm‐scale (<30 ha) management of geese is unlikely to be effective because hazed individuals are likely to be replaced soon afterwards. Instead, our findings suggest that goose management should be coordinated strategically at the local (~1,000 ha), or regional (~100,000 ha) scale. Farm‐level management would likely be more effective if implemented in conjunction with the creation of regional sanctuaries where geese could rest and potentially feed undisturbed away from farms. Our findings can be used by wildlife managers for optimizing the location of such sanctuaries and highlight the necessity for management to be adaptive given the opportunistic nature of the species.

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confidence: 99%

Seasonal space use and habitat selection in magpie geese: implications for reducing human‐wildlife conflicts

et al. 2022

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“…The impact of trends, strategies and policy options on whole-farm profitability can be assessed by using a typical, or representative farm. In essence, it is a synthetically constructed model farm based on the expected structure of a farm in a particular area (Ash et al 2017). The farm sizes and land distribution identification for the typical farms was done according to statistics obtained from industry organisations (Hortgro 2016; SAWIS 2016; SATI 2017).…”

Section: Analysis Of Water Quality Data From the Berg River Improvemementioning

confidence: 99%

Urbanisation, climate change and its impact on water quality and economic risks in a water scarce and rapidly urbanising catchment: case study of the Berg River Catchment

Cullis¹,

Horn

Rossouw³

et al. 2019

H2Open Journal

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By 2050 it is predicted that 67% of the world population is expected to be living in urban areas, with the most rapid levels of urbanisation taking place in developing countries. Urbanisation is often directly linked to the degradation of environmental quality, including quality of water, air and noise. Concurrently, the climate is changing. Together, the negative impacts of climate change and urbanisation pose significant challenges, especially in developing countries where resources to mitigate these impacts are limited. Focusing on the Berg River Catchment in South Africa, which is experiencing increasing levels of urbanisation, the impacts of climate change, the ‘wicked problem’ of service delivery to the historically disadvantaged within a developing country, persistent infrastructure backlogs, and where high unemployment is prevalent, this paper explores the increasing water quality risks due to climate change and rapid urban development and the likely direct and indirect economic impacts that this will have on the agriculture sector, which is a key contributor to the regional and national economy. The results give support to the need to invest in risk mitigation measures including the provision of basic services, the upgrading and maintenance of wastewater treatment plants and investing in ecological infrastructure.

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“…In essence, it is a synthetically constructed model farm based on the expected structure of a farm in a particular area. 56…”

Section: What Is the Typical Farm?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying the water-energy-food nexus to farm profitability in the Middle Breede Catchment, South Africa

Seeliger¹,

Clercq²,

Hoffman³

et al. 2018

S. Afr. J. Sci.

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The water-energy-food nexus has emerged as a useful concept to understand the multiple interdependencies that exist between the water, energy and food sectors. The nexus is an ambitious attempt to work across disciplines and scales to understand the workings of these complex systems. It is, however, criticised for being more of a general framework than a practical methodology because of the vast amount of data it would need to make real-life contributions to sustainable development. We show how the nexus approach, when used within a farm budget model, can transform the problem focus in water governance. By changing the relationship among water, energy and food production of a farm, profitability is significantly changed. The water-energy-food nexus debate is discussed within the context of the South African water sector, particularly the Breede River Catchment. Working from within the farm budget model, we demonstrate the impact of moving from an irrigation canal system that requires electricity for pumping, to a gravity-fed piped irrigation system in the Middle Breede River. The finding is that the water-energy-food nexus has the potential to unlock groundbreaking solutions to complex problems in agricultural water management when used in appropriate modelling systems. Significance: The water-energy-food nexus approach can lead to an entirely new framing of water governance problems and therefore solutions to these problems. The water-energy-food nexus when used in farm budget models can identify ways of altering farm profitability. By addressing the energy cost of farming through an irrigation pipeline system in parts of the Breede Catchment Area, farm profitability could significantly increase. A gravity-fed closed pipeline system in parts of the Breede River can improve water availability and reduce farm and management costs.

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Irrigated agricultural development in northern Australia: Value-chain challenges and opportunities

Cited by 28 publications

References 21 publications

Seasonal space use and habitat selection in magpie geese: implications for reducing human‐wildlife conflicts

Seasonal space use and habitat selection in magpie geese: implications for reducing human‐wildlife conflicts

Urbanisation, climate change and its impact on water quality and economic risks in a water scarce and rapidly urbanising catchment: case study of the Berg River Catchment

Applying the water-energy-food nexus to farm profitability in the Middle Breede Catchment, South Africa

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