Events Integrating accounting and sensing data to save costs and improve water productivity in farming

Tuesday, February 18th, 2020, 11 AM MIT Campus, E51-275, 70 Memorial Drive RSVP Here Organizer: J-WAFS

This talk is the first in a seminar series on water accounting and decision support tools for water management by J-WAFS visiting scholar Dr Joanne Tingey-Holyoak  CPAg, CPA, PhD, BBus (Hons 1A), a senior lecturer and researcher in the Sustainable Engineering, Accounting and Law Group in the University of Southern Australia (UniSA) Business School.  In it, Dr. Tingey-Holyoak will address the development of WaterLink, a tool that integrates farmers' financial accounting data with soil moisture and climate data to better account for water use on farms.

Producers need strategies and tools to assist in monitoring, planning and decision making around their water with a view to improving physical and financial productivity. Farm accounting systems, if present, can lack the sophistication to allow growers to analyze use and productivity of water. Water accounting technologies, if present, do not readily link to business systems to provide the optimal real-time financial decision-making data, nor do they draw on and respond to the necessary context that is essential for a truly integrated approach to water accounting. This presentation will draw on expert interviews and producer surveys conducted by Dr. Tingey-Holyoak that highlighted the supply of and demand for an integrated water productivity accounting tool and enabled the development of a new conceptual model and decision framework.  The participant-oriented case study in potatoes and technological development that will be presented in the talk demonstrates how irrigation decision making can be supported by linking producers’ business systems and sensing technology.

Please RSVP here