Water Innovation for Agriculture
From de-salinisation to drip irrigation and drought-tolerant varieties, we’ll be exploring the ways of embracing novel water solutions and management for farmers.
The east of England, for example, is classified as being “seriously drought stressed” by the Environment Agency, and urgent action is being taken to manage the situation. Through changes in abstraction licenses, Eastern England is likely to lose access to up to 59Ml/d of water (approximately 17% of current estimated peak summer abstraction for spray irrigation).
The situation is even more pressing elsewhere in the world.
While policy and behaviour change – as well as fixing leaky pipes – are important parts of the solution, so is new technology. Join us as we dive into some innovative new technologies being developed to help manage water relations on-farm and discuss their practical implementation.
Hosted in partnership with Cranfield University, we’ll be hearing from scientists and entrepreneurs running technology companies applying innovation to the challenges as well as having the opportunity to tour some of the research facilities at Cranfield University. 
Speaker includes Prof Jerry Knox and Dr Rob Simmons of Cranfield University and companies such as Tailwater Systems, Wroot Water and Aguagrain.
Please note the tour is limited to 20 delegates, and must be pre-booked. Scroll down to see the Event Agenda.
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Cost:
This event is £50 (excl VAT) for non-members; Members will need to login or register for an account in order to access your member discount according to your tier.
To find out more about becoming a member of Agri-TechE, please click here.
Please note the fee is non-refundable for cancellation within 5 working days of the event.
3 Basis CPD points will be available to attendees of this event.
Agenda
Grab a drink and explore our little exhibition area:
- Have a chat with Peter Palmer from Prodata Weather Systems, a specialist UK supplier of highly flexible, quality and cost-effective weather and environmental-monitoring equipment
- See a demonstration of the broad range of functions adjuvants have in spray applications. De Sangosse have designed and built their own unique linear spray rig which is mounted in a trailer allowing it to be portable.
Kelly Hewson Fisher, National Water Resources Specialist at National Farmers’ Union
Daniel Johns, Managing Director at Water Resources East
Prof Jerry Knox, Professor of Agricultural Water Management, Centre for Water, Environment and Development - Building resilience to drought and water scarcity risks
Dr. Rob Simmons, Reader in Sustainable Soil Management - Solutions to soil and water management challenges in high value horticultural crops
Technology for waste-water treatment and re-use, from nitrate removal to brine reduction
From drip irrigation to bio-beds – a specialist in water resource management for agriculture
A novel composite designed to increase the water holding capacity of the growth medium and increase drought tolerance of crops.
- De Sangosse Spray Demo: Water accounts for around 95% of the total spray volume, and so water quality plays an important role in spray applications, particularly water hardness and pH which can reduce the effectiveness of certain pesticides. De Sangosse have developed a range of product solutions to overcome these issues and help ensure the pest possible performance from plant protection products. Importantly these products’ performance have been tested in an extensive range of field trials to establish their contribution to pesticide performance, and support their widespread use in crop protection programmes today.
- Tour of the Cranfield University facilities: this is an opportunity for delegates to explore the large research glasshouse (with a “phenotyping” gantry to enable crop growth to be monitored in unprecedented details), also the rainfall simulator/soil erosion area, the water and wastewater treatment plants.