Best Practice Irrigation Management and Extension in Peri-Urban Landscapes--Experiences and Insights from the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment, Australia

Purpose: The aim of this article to examine key irrigation management issues and their implications for future research and extension developments. Design/Methodology/Approach: Peri-urban landscapes are important as they supply fresh fruit, vegetables, turf, ornamental plants and other farm products to the cities. In this study, the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment (HNC) was used as a case study and a number of farmers were selected to examine how they use the available technologies for irrigation scheduling to make better decisions for developing water management strategies on their farms. The farmers who participated in the study were mainly growing fruit, turf, vegetables, pasture, olive trees and cut flowers. Findings: It was observed that a range of factors influenced correct irrigation scheduling decisions of farmers, including their limited understanding of the soil-water-plant relationship, costs of implementing soil-moisture monitoring technology and finding a date for irrigation activity that is compatible with their other farm tasks. It was also found that the farmers' experiential knowledge played an important role in their irrigation scheduling decisions. The study indicated that irrigation scheduling approaches, which have a low labour requirement and are cost effective and easy to use would be helpful to farmers. Practical Implications: The study highlighted that there are some irrigation management issues for research and extension that are specific to peri-urban farming and as such they need to be addressed to improve irrigation management and to cope with future water scarcity in urban and peri-urban landscapes. Originality/Value: This is one of few studies that examine irrigation scheduling issues in a peri-urban context. The study has revealed that irrigation scheduling in reality cannot be an exact science, but it needs to accommodate various farmer constraints in field situations and may have implication for extension activities in peri-urban and other regions.