There is interest from growers to evaluate the suitability of flood irrigation automation concepts in commercialise irrigation systems. The trial included commercial comparisons between lateral, drip and automated siphon and bankless systems. The priorities were to maintain or improve water-use efficiency, reduce the labour and energy requirements and to identify a system which is cost effective for broad scale adoption by industry.

The project had provided an additional set of system comparison data which reaffirms previous findings that irrigation efficiency is influenced more by the seasonal conditions than it is by the system being used.

The project has demonstrated that the installation of on farm broadband systems will significantly improve the reliability and speed of internet connectivity, something that is of increasing importance as irrigators move towards automation.

The initial steps towards automated flood irrigation have shown that there are challenges and the selection of the right equipment in important. The installation of smart siphons demonstrated that this could be cost effectively achieved, but that there were different approached which could be made. The project also demonstrated that a gradual progression towards automation was possible using the smart siphon and associated management system.