Supporting collaboration through innovative water sharing tool for high-value irrigated agriculture.

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The existing abstraction licensing system in England results in inefficiencies in the utilisation of water. This constrains crop productivity, business growth and resilience to drought in high-value irrigated agriculture and horticulture. Collaborative water sharing between individual growers seeks to address these limitations without the high transactional costs of water trading, but farm business support tools are lacking. This study aims to develop a proof-of-concept application that connects and supports farm businesses in water sharing, using irrigated businesses in the Lark catchment in Eastern England as a case study. The tool, developed through a process of co-design with farming business, will integrate multiple data sources and Environment Agency decision-making rules, to identify near real-time water sharing opportunities. The project builds on previous water sharing research conducted by Cranfield University with the Lark Abstractors Group and the Environment Agency and will practically demonstrate the potential benefits of empowering irrigators with the interpreted data needed to identify and inform their water sharing decisions. It will also promote more efficient allocation and use of water helping to reduce pumping (energy) costs and thereby support the sector's targets for moving towards net zero carbon. The project will be led by a farm business consultancy (Lindsay Hargreaves Ltd) who are based in the Lark catchment and have established links with many local farming businesses. They will partner with the Water Science Institute at Cranfield University who will provide technical oversight to the project helping to build the water sharing prototype.