Perceived conflicts between different kinds of land management can be resolved using science – as long as everyone trusts the data. Water quality management in Great Barrier Reef catchments has been a classic example. For decades there has been controversy about changes in farming practice to the point where landholders had begun to lose trust in the science.

In a number of ways we have successfully built new trust frameworks and provided viable pathways for practice change for sugar cane farmers, using technology to put the data in their own hands.

In one example, a network of water quality sensors was installed in the Russell-Mulgrave catchment just south of Cairns so that sugar growers to take a citizen-science approach to water quality monitoring. Sugar growers participated in decision-making about the instruments and can now observe nitrogen concentrations in runoff from their own properties in real time via a smartphone app.

Participating farmers are regularly engaging with researchers and their data, and are actively and positively promoting their engagement with the project to convince other farmers of the project’s benefits. Barry Stubbs, one of the largest sugar growers in the Russell-Mulgrave, said the project was spurring famers to take action to improve water quality flowing from their farms.

In another example, the development and adoption of an Internet of Things (IOT) platform has vastly improved the efficiency of automated irrigation systems on a cane farm in the Burdekin catchment. The platform combines information from weather forecasts and the grower’s own watering system to create a suggested model for irrigation for the day, saving the grower huge amounts of time and effort and also minimise wasted water and sediment runoff to the Great Barrier Reef.

As for most NESP TWQ projects, while data and technological innovation were key, success has relied upon nurturing trusting relationships between cane growers and researchers.