Part III : Documentation and evaluation of investment in improved irrigation management for water quality improvement in the Lower Burdekin
7 Overview of investment programs – current and past
As described in the Introduction ( Section 0 ), reducing nutrient and pesticide losses and reducing irrigation runoff from sugarcane in the Lower Burdekin for water quality improvement has been a major priority for natural resource management in the Burdekin Region for many years .
A comprehensive review of the benefits and limitations of investment programs for water quality outcomes in Lower Burdekin sugarcane areas is outside the scope of this project and is likely to be considered in more detail as part of the DAF Regional Extension Plan and SRA Adoption Plan . Instead , an overview of currently available information is presented . It is recommended that a full evaluation of this information is undertaken by the delivery partners to guide future investment activities in the region in the next 6 months . This is identified as part of the recommendations in Part I .
7.1 Current and past programs
A summary of the major sugarcane incentive and extension programs , supporting R & D and monitoring currently underway , or recently completed , in the Lower Burdekin catchment are shown in Table 7.1 . It is estimated that this investment is in the order of at least $ 51 million ( not including in-kind contributions ) over the last 10 years .
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