MORE than 750 citrus farms across the country have been carefully mapped and included on a new National Citrus Map.
Created by the University of New England’s Applied Agricultural Remote Sensing Centre (AARSC), the map serves as a national baseline for the location of all commercial citrus orchards across Australia.
The map can be viewed on the Citrus Australia website, citrusaustralia.com.au.
CA says the map, developed to support traceability, value-adds essential information at greater detail (block level).
This information is not available in the Australian Tree Crop Map and is only accessible via CA.
The National Citrus Map provides a pioneering fundamental data set for Australian citrus that is expected to become the cornerstone of the industry’s traceability, biosecurity, exports, sustainability and business planning.
CA and the AARSC have developed the map, which adds more detailed information to the existing citrus elements of the Australian Tree Crop Map, including block ID, variety and age.
It also employed citrus traceability officer Paul Stephens to gather additional data to populate the map.
CA chief executive Nathan Hancock says “digitising the mapping will help improve the traceability to farm for biosecurity and food fraud-related issues”.
“It also provides an accurate assessment of current and future crop loads, which will aid future market development, and make KCT applications easier for growers,” Nathan says.
“The risks to industry if this tool is not developed and maintained are jeopardised traceability and biosecurity.”
Development of the National Citrus Map, together with complementary projects for isotope testing and implementation of new traceability systems for exports, was achieved through the Citrus Export Development Project, funded by Agriculture Victoria’s food-to-market program.
Growers can access the Australian Tree Crop Map on the CA website and can search for their farm by co-ordinates or road name.
Farmers can contact CA if they want the map updated.
“We are proud to be breaking new ground with this initiative, but equally, it would be negligent not to do so,” Nathan says.
About 750 farms have been mapped and 400 more are on the list.
Under the program, data is populated at block level into the map by CA through a purpose-built application developed by AARSC, supported by an iPad application that can be used on farm, enabling future use by CA, especially during the yearly November-January Citrus Tree Census.
All information populated in the National Citrus Map is owned by Citrus Australia and is secure under strict sign-in access.
