Commercial Pistachio Pilot
Autumn 2024 | Loxton, SA
The Brief
A vertically integrated agricultural production company, producing Pistachios in the Loxton Region of South Australia, with interest and control from paddock to plate.
They use state-of-the-art technology to effectively produce Pistachios and are an emerging layer in the Pistachio industry. To date this enterprise has been using standard irrigation process for its Orchards. There are multiple challenges about water availability especially during the dry season.
This Orchard is positioned in the lower basin of the Murray Darling Basin on the Murray River and covers some 50 hectares of Pistachios. It has a mix of flat and gently undulating topography and sandy loam soils.
This area has historically, and continues to, face significant challenges around water availability, water quality, energy pricing and environmental impact of agricultural production on the ecosystem as a whole alongside the traditional natural disaster risks arising from climate extremes of drought and flood.
Pistachios are a medium-volume water use crop and there is a lot of focus on the industry at the moment and its social license to operate because of the high volumes of water it takes to produce and the challenges of the ecosystem around current and future water availability.
The river system is currently estimated to be facing a 20% loss of water volume in the coming years due to climate related factors. Producers reliant on this ecosystem must find ways of doing more with less if they are to maintain let alone grow their production.
The regional Irrigation Trusts, which manage the water delivery infrastructure to the farm, and farms in the region, are currently facing a multitude of challenges and whilst there are initiatives in development, there is a significant risk to the enterprise and other producers in the area, who form co-operatives that owns the infrastructure which is managed by the Trust.
The Trust is charged with the management and upkeep and in ensuring water availability. These challenges could have major impacts on the enterprise’s business related to the cost of delivered water cost and overall security of supply and water quality.
The use of fertigation in the production of Pistachios is significant. The rising costs of fertilisers and environmental impacts of leaching is another area of focus for improvement including reduced volume and cost whilst maintaining or increasing yields and reducing environmental impacts.
The enterprise also manages a common Pistachio production challenge of fungal diseases and more which negatively impact production.
Overall, the enterprise has, and continues to take, a strong and active leadership role by searching and trialling new ways to address this and other issues.
The decades of experience and high levels of expertise that exists within the enterprise team, together with the dedication to the present success and future success of the business, the Pistachio industry, coupled with the awareness of its role within the local communities, and the broader regional ecosystem in the Riverlands and ultimately as part of the South Australian national horticulture industry and that of the vast Murray Darling Basin ecosystem is a pivotal one.
The Project
The Pilot Plot is on an undulating site and the irrigation solution with Growstream has been designed accordingly by the Inhouse design team in Nested Ventures and RDI and in collaboration with the Technical Officer and CEO of the enterprise.
One row of Growstream will be implemented on either side of the trees at 30cm spacings with a distance of approximately 40cm from the trunk.
Water will be delivered to the pilot from a header tank which has been sized accordingly to the maximum current known water requirements of the trees involved in the Pilot. Water will be delivered through a gravity fed system and maintained at 2psi or less 24hrs a day x 7 days a week. Fertigation will be delivered through the system with an immediate decrease in volume of 50% of fertiliser.
The Pilot will include one variety of Pistachios only the Australian Sirora variety which have been bred by the CSIRO for Australian conditions.
The trees are approximately 3 years of age and will be monitored throughout the Pilot with regular reporting on performance of the system and of the trees.
The RDI Australia team and the International RDI Team will be delivering pre-implementation training and on-site implementation support during installation. Working with the enterprise’s in-house and external resources for the physical implementation. We will be posting updates on the Pilot including installation and updates throughout 2024.