Purpose

Agriculture is under pressure to produce more food under increasingly variable climate conditions. Consequently, producers need management innovations that lead to improved physical and financial productivity. Currently, farm accounting technologies lack the sophistication to allow producers to analyse productivity of water. Furthermore water-related agricultural technology (“agtech”) systems do not readily link to accounting innovations. This study aims to establish a conceptual and practical framework for linking temporal, biophysical and management decision-making to accounting by develop a soil moisture and climate monitoring tool.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts an exploratory mixed-methods approach to understand supply of and demand for water accounting and water-related agtech; and bundling these innovations with farm accounting to generate a stable tool with the ability to improve agricultural practices over time. Three phases of data collection are the focus here: first, a desk-based review of water accounting and water technology – including benchmarking of key design characteristics of these methods and key actor interviews to verify and identify trends, allowing for conceptual model development; second, a producer survey to test demand for the “bundled” conceptual model; third and finally, a participant-based case study in potato-farming that links the data from direct monitoring and remote sensing to farm accounts.

Findings

Design characteristics of water accounting and agtech innovations are bundled into an overall irrigation decision-making conceptual model based on in-depth review of available innovations and verification by key actors. Producer surveys suggest enough demand to pursue practical bundling of these innovations undertaken by developing an integrated accounting, soil moisture and climate monitoring tool on-farm. Productivity trends over two seasons of case study data demonstrate the pivotal role of accounting in leading to better technical irrigation decisions and improving water productivity.

Originality/value

The model can assist practitioners to gauge strengths and weaknesses of contemporary water accounting fads and fashions and potential for innovation bundling for improved water productivity. The practical tool demonstrates how on-farm irrigation decision-making can be supported by linking farm accounting systems and smart technology

中文翻译：

---

在会计中嵌入智能技术以应对全球灌溉挑战

目的

在不断变化的气候条件下，农业承受着生产更多粮食的压力。因此，生产者需要管理创新，以提高物理和财务生产率。当前，农业会计技术缺乏使生产者分析水生产率的复杂性。此外，与水有关的农业技术（“ agtech”）系统不容易与会计创新联系在一起。本研究旨在通过开发土壤水分和气候监测工具，建立一个将时间，生物物理和管理决策与核算联系起来的概念和实践框架。

设计/方法/方法

本文采用探索性的混合方法方法来了解水核算和与水有关的农业技术的供求关系。并将这些创新与农场会计捆绑在一起，以生成一个稳定的工具，该工具可以随着时间的推移改善农业实践。这里的重点是数据收集的三个阶段：首先，对水资源核算和水技术进行基于案头的审查-包括对这些方法的关键设计特征进行基准测试以及关键参与者访谈，以验证和识别趋势，从而进行概念模型的开发；其次，进行生产者调查，以测试对“捆绑”概念模型的需求；第三，也是最后一个基于参与者的马铃薯种植案例研究，该研究将数据从直接监测和遥感数据链接到农场账户。

发现

基于对现有创新的深入审查和关键参与者的验证，水核算和农业技术创新的设计特征被捆绑到总体灌溉决策概念模型中。生产者调查表明，有足够的需求通过在农场上开发综合会计，土壤湿度和气候监测工具来进行这些创新的实用捆绑。在过去两个季节的案例研究数据中，生产率的趋势表明，会计核算在促成更好的技术灌溉决策和提高水生产率方面起着关键作用。

创意/价值

该模型可以帮助从业人员评估当代水核算时尚和时尚的优势和劣势，以及创新捆绑以提高水生产率的潜力。该实用工具演示了如何通过将农业会计系统与智能技术相链接来支持农田灌溉决策