24th April 2007The National Agricultural Monitoring System (NAMS) website this week has been expanded to provide vital information for irrigators – from stream flow data to climatic conditions and water availability.
Minister for Agriculture, Peter McGauran, who launched an extension to the site, said the additional information would be of great benefit to farmers in a range of irrigation industries, including dairy, cotton, rice and sugarcane.
“The NAMS website, launched a year ago, has been widely used to help streamline drought assistance applications and assessments,” Mr McGauran said.
“It’s saving rural communities time and money, as well as providing useful data for dryland and broadacre farmers.
“The site has become a central source of climatic and production information on Australian agriculture.
“It has been averaging almost 120,000 hits a month.
“From today, the extended site will provide relevant information for the thousands of farmers who rely on irrigation water.
NAMS was developed by the Australian Government’s Bureau of Rural Sciences.
* More information: www.nams.gov.au
SOURCE: Rural Press national rural news, updated daily by FarmOnline.