To read this content please select one of the options below:

Embedding smart technologies in accounting to meet global irrigation challenges

Joanne Louise Tingey-Holyoak (UniSA Business, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia)
John Dean Pisaniello (UniSA Business, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia)
Peter Buss (R&D, Sentek Pty Ltd, Adelaide, Australia)

Meditari Accountancy Research

ISSN: 2049-372X

Article publication date: 29 January 2021

Issue publication date: 21 September 2021

583

Abstract

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

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for support from Sentek Technologies Pty Ltd and also the grower participants who contributed significant time and resources to the research. Thanks also to the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) for funding the preliminary project and also the University of South Australia Research Themes Investment Scheme (2018) which made the field work possible. Much gratitude is extended to Dr Wolfgang Mayer of UniSA STEM for leadership of software protoype development.

Citation

Tingey-Holyoak, J.L., Pisaniello, J.D. and Buss, P. (2021), "Embedding smart technologies in accounting to meet global irrigation challenges", Meditari Accountancy Research, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 1146-1178. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEDAR-03-2020-0835

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles