Short project description

One of the greatest challenges for modern agriculture is to improve water-use efficiency in the face of climate change. Water-limited conditions, such as the spring drought of 2018, underscore the need to capture, store, and utilize water from deeper soil layers to enhance water productivity. Annual crops like wheat and canola are particularly vulnerable to these challenges due to their shallow root systems. Deep-rooted perennial grain crops that can yield human-edible grains over multiple years without re-seeding are emerging as potential alternatives for more resilient and sustainable crop production. These crops, due to their longer occupancy in fields, are presumed to utilize deep soil water more effectively. However, significant knowledge gaps must be addressed before adopting these novel crops to improve water-use efficiency. This master project aims at employing sensing technology to determine the deep water dynamics of the perennial grain crops and model the process (e.g. APSIM).