Economic Assessment

Assessing the cost and effectiveness of any system should provide growers and operators with an objective analysis of the initial cost of the technology, the costs of maintenance, system management and the pay-back period on any investment. The most important part of this assessment is the cost benefits that this system can provide. This will obviously vary from grower to grower and from small to large operations.

Additionally, the greatest challenge for many producers with any technological advance is the ease with which that technology can be effectively implemented and used. We are working to minimize the ‘learning curve’ and provide equipment that is virtually ‘plug-and-play’ to reduce the setup time and expertise needed to adopt this technology.

This project is using data from our commercial partners to assess the cost-savings of adopting the new technology, the economies of scale and an analysis of farm characteristics most likely to influence the adoption decision. This will be combined with an analysis of the environmental benefits of the new technology in these operations.