|
PROJECT NO. |
127 |
Project Title
|
Whopper Cropper - empowering crop management
advisers and grain growers to manage production and price risk |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Project Leader
|
Graeme Hammer |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Organisation |
Department of Primary Industries |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Funding
Body |
GRDC |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Administration
Contact |
Vicki Battaglia Department of Primary Industries Ph: 07 4639 8886
Fax: 07 4639 8881 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Commencement
Date |
1 July 2000 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Completion
Date |
30 June 2003 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Research
Proposal Summary |
This project will be based in
Toowoomba, the headquarters of both APSRU and QCCA, the key collaborating
units in the development and extension of Whopper Cropper. APSRU is a joint research unit of
Queensland Departments of Primary Industries (DPI) and Natural Resouces (DNR)
and CSIRO Tropical Agriculture. QCCA is a new initiative of the Queensland
Government designed to enhance the climate-related work of the DPI and
DNR. This project combines the
strength of both research units that are based in large research provider
organisations with credible track records in R&D and provides the means
to reap major benefits by building on the substantial core investment in this
work to date. The project complements existing projects on crop model
development (eg. for sorghum, canola and others) and other delivery/decision
support projects, such as TopCrop and Farmscape. Within TopCrop, Whopper Cropper will be used to assist in
benchmarking and best management practice approaches. Farmscape, which is pursuing direct use of
APSIM with a restricted number of consultants/advisors to deal with
management issues targeted to specific field conditions, will utilise the
training module developed for Whopper Cropper. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Aims |
§ Train
and support a network of skilled extension officers capable of training other
extension officers and agribusiness consultants to use Whopper Cropper in
farmer-driven workshops on managing climate risk in cropping systems. § Accelerate
the development of the Whopper Cropper crop simulation database and graphical
user interface in close consultation with the key extension officers and crop
management advisers who are the intended users of the software. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Potential
Outcomes |
The outcome of this project will be improved management of production and price risk by grain growers in the northern cropping region with potential increase in profit of 10-20%. The project will achieve this by developing a decision/discussion support system known as Whopper Cropper that combines the cropping systems modelling capability of APSRU (Agricultural Production Systems Research Unit) with seasonal climate forecasting applications extension capacity of QCCA (Queensland Centre for Climate Applications) and makes it widely available to crop management advisers from northern NSW to central Qld. This project contributes to GRDC's investment
objective 3 of enhancing the industry's capability to produce grain of
consistent quality and yield to protect the profitability of grain
producers. Specifically, it fulfills
the enabling strategy of improving graingrowers' skills in managing the risks
associated with variable production and prices by developing decision aids to
promote self-reliance. It also meets
the criteria of investment objective 4 by integrating climate forecasting and
crop modelling research outcomes into a user-friendly software package with
an established delivery network. There is expanding demand for
these services generated by APSRU's on-farm demonstration of the risk
management benefits of APSIM, as well as QCCA's managing for climate
workshops which have fuelled demand for applications of seasonal climate
forecasting to crop management. A
prototype of Whopper Cropper has been developed and tested in farmer
workshops by APSRU/QCCA. Whopper
Cropper is an easy-to-use computer program designed to provide crop
management advisers with the latest technology in cropping systems modelling
and seasonal climate forecasting.
Whopper Cropper is a database of pre-run APSIM simulations with an
easy-to-use graphical interface facilitating time series, probability and
diagnostic analyses. The crop yields
stored in Whopper Cropper were simulated using the Agricultural Production
Systems SIMulator (APSIM) cropping systems modelling
environment. Whopper Cropper provides
crop management advisers with access to the power of the APSIM model, without
spending time learning to use APSIM itself. Preliminary evaluations have been
very favourable and have underpinned the significant industry support for
this approach. However, resources are
insufficient to meet the burgeoning demand for wider coverage, more advanced
software and delivery of workshops with farmer groups. The project will enhance the profitability
of the grain producers by facilitating the application of risk management
approaches using seasonal forecasting that have been shown to have the
potential to increase profits by 10-20%.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Milestones |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Budget |
GRDC Budget Brief description of the main items required
in each category $2000- 2001 $2001- 2002 $2002- 2003 Total
$ GRDC Salaries Nelson (20%), Software engineer PO3 (100%) 70 000 73 000 76 000 219 000 Travel Vehicle and team meetings 10 000 10 000 10 000 30 000 Operating $5000 per year for 3 extension hubs, and
research centre in Toowoomba 20 000 20 000 20 000 60 000 Capital 3 dual processor computers 16 500 - - 16 500 Grand Total GRDC $ for project duration 116 500 103 000 106 000 325 500 Non-GRDC Contribution Brief description of contribution ($ and in-kind) $2000-2001 $2001-2002 $2002-2003 Total non GRDC Additional from host agency Salary and overheads 150 000 150 000 150 000 450 000 Additional from other sources NSW Ag salary and overheads 20 000 20 000 20 000 60 000 On-going base (if
applicable) Grand Total Non-GRDC $ for project duration 170 000 170 000 170 000 510 000 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Staff % /
year Dr G L Hammer 10 Dr R Nelson 20 &
Contributions |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Prior
Provision of IP & Rights of Ownership |
APSIM remains the sole
intellectual property of APSRU |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ownership,
equity in and use of IP to be developed |
C |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Rights of Publication |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Strategic
Plan Goal No. |
1 & 4 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Relevance to Strategic Plan |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||