e-News Edition #3

Date: 16-Dec-2022

Hot Topics

1. Season's Greetings from Irrigation Australia

2. Nigeria Tour Party - Visit to NSW and VIC

3. Call for Articles and Advertisers - Autumn Edition of the Journal

4. Irrigation Australia Big Bash League Tipping Competition

1. Season's Greetings from Irrigation Australia

Short and sweet – the Irrigation Australia team would like to extend its best wishes to members, sponsors, stakeholders and anyone else likeable for a safe festive break.  Our office will be closed from 26 December to 2 January inclusive with a couple of people working off site and able to deal with emergencies on the non-public holidays that week.

It’s been an intense year for all concerned – looking forward to the break and coming back refreshed and ready to take on a long list of new challenges for 2023.

2. Nigeria Tour Party - Visit to NSW and VIC

Irrigation Australia hosted a successful Field Tour with a selected Nigerian group to visit the Riverina Irrigated Area of NSW and VIC from 28 November through 2 December.  The event was supported by the Economic, Trade & Investment Matters Office of the Nigeria High Commission in Australia.

Particular thanks to Bryan Ward (former CEO) as chief organiser and Andres Jaramillo, who ably guided the group to overwhelming positive feedback, and all of the excellent hosts during the week.  Check out the photos here!

The fourteen participants came from several private and public entities and organisations from Nigeria:  delegates from The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Scagric Investment, and Ruach Agribusiness.

Site visits were carried out to Darrell Fiddler’s farm (Winner of the Rice Grower of the Year Award 2021), the Irrigation Research and Extension Committee (IREC) Field Station, Serafin Machinery, Collier & Miller, Murrumbidgee Irrigation, Coleambally Irrigation, Southern Growers in Finley, NSW, where the group had the opportunity to hear from innovative farmer, Russell Ford, about how Rubicon technology is promoting increased productivity of rice.  A guided visit to Rubicon in Shepparton was conducted after the field trip.

Representatives from the Goulburn Broken catchment also participated in the program with an interesting talk and at the group dinner that was sponsored by Irrigation Australia and Rubicon Water. 

Before heading to Melbourne, the group was taken to a regulating site for Goulburn-Murray Water before departing to Melbourne – unfortunately the planned visit to Netafim had to be cancelled due to a scheduling conflict.

3. Call for Articles and Advertisers - Autumn Edition of the Journal

With our summer release just around the corner, our wonderful editor, Eve White, is starting to compile the next Journal edition, due for publication towards the end of February. If you have an idea for a case study or technical article you’d like to share with the industry, please get in touch with Eve to discuss. The features for autumn are ‘training and professional development’ and ‘digital technology in irrigation’ but we welcome articles focusing on all aspects of the industry. The deadline for all material is 10 Feb 2023. 

For all potential content providers and advertisers, check out the media kit available here.  Eve’s contact details are on the last page, along with our advertising manager, Brian Rault’s.

4. Irrigation Australia Big Bash League Tipping Competition

We are very sorry to say that we’ve had to cancel the Big Bash League Tipping Competition for members due to a lack of interest.  The exercise has allowed us to test our systems and get ready for AFL and NRL in 2023!

Till next time, best wishes....