Posted: 03 February 2005
Free workshop on pesticide use, water allocation
Northland horticulturists are being invited to a free workshop to explain two cutting-edge computer programmes designed to make irrigation and agrichemical applications more environmentally friendly and effective.
Northland Regional Council Groundwater Management Officer Susie Osbaldiston says the Tuesday 15 February Whangarei workshop will explain the ‘GROWSAFE’ Calculator and ‘SPASMO’ (water allocation) software package to horticulturists.
The GROWSAFE Calculator lets growers evaluate the environmental effects of different agricultural chemicals for the same job - predicting how those chemicals will leach or accumulate in soil.
The calculator was developed for the NZ Agrichemical Education Trust (GROWSAFE) by HortResearch with funding from MAF's Sustainable Farming Fund.
It allows growers to choose from more than 28,000 combinations of crops, regions, soil types and agrichemicals to make well-informed decisions about the environmental impacts of the chemicals they use.
Meanwhile, the SPASMO (water allocation) software package assesses the irrigation requirements for a range of crops, soils and locations in Northland.
Ms Osbaldiston says fresh water is a valuable resource and important for Northland’s economy, especially in summer when extreme dry periods can occur.
She says demand for freshwater has increased in Northland in recent years because traditional farming and forestry is being replaced with more intensive farming, orchard and market gardening that rely on irrigation during the dry summer months. Increased urban development and tourism has also boosted demand for water.
“It’s becoming increasingly important that freshwater is used efficiently and that wastage is minimised.”
To that end, the Council commissioned HortResearch to develop a software package to help it allocate irrigation water more scientifically, taking into account the range of soils, crops and climatic conditions across the region.
The package uses local soil information derived from physical and hydraulic properties in Landcare Research’s NZ Soil Database. Similarly, local weather data is derived from 30 years of daily records on the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research’s National Climate Database.
Ms Osbaldiston says the workshop will be held on February 15 at 1pm in the Bounty Room at Whangarei’s Forum North. Compact discs of the two computer programmes can be ordered by contacting the Northland Regional Council.