New labour-saving equipment and innovative technology is offering production horticulture growers some alternative strategies to reduce labour supply problems and high production input costs.
The federal and state governments are keen to assist growers to realise the potential of new technology by offering a range of programs and incentive grants.
But growers are busy people and implementing any innovation to an existing business can be complex and time-consuming.
To assist growers in this area, Growcom has launched a new service.
The Hort360 Innovation Coach is designed to help fruit, vegetable and nut growers work through the process of integrating new technology into their businesses and to enable growers to maximise their access to grants and support mechanisms to realise their plans.
The service is a part of production horticulture’s first Best Management Practice program, Hort360, which is designed to give growers a 360 degree view of their farm business operations.
The new service will help growers decide:
- What technology their farm could use to bring down costs and improve efficiency.
- How the technology could be integrated into the current farming business.
- What financial and technological advice and help is available to support the innovation.
Growcom can assist by giving growers the opportunities to network with the experts in the field, talk to those growers who are early adopters in their own businesses and have found out the opportunities and pitfalls, and those who can provide practical information and financial and training support.
Growcom’s lead Innovation Coach is Steve Tiley, who is based in Townsville.
Steve has worked for Growcom as a Land and Water Officer for the past two years offering growers advice and help in bringing about efficiencies in water, fertiliser and chemical applications on farm. He is well known to local growers and has already been able to suggest practical innovations which have brought about thousands of dollars worth of savings to farm businesses.
We invite production horticulture growers, wherever they are based, to ring Steve for a chat on (07) 4722 5741 or 0417 743 614 (email stiley@growcom.com.au) to discuss where they want to take their farming businesses.
