ADOPTION OF THE WEB-BASED SUGARCANE VARIETY DECISION SUPPORT PROGRAM, QCANESELECTtm

OPTIMISING SUGARCANE variety selection for different soil types, environments and management targets is important to maximise productivity and profit for growers and millers. QCANESelectTM was developed to provide growers with interactive, up-to-date advice and information on varieties for their individual situations. QCANESelectTM went live on the web in August 2008 and was officially launched in May 2009. Growers can define the soil type, diseases of concern and management options and get recommendations for an individual block or for their whole farm. The system also provides variety information sheets that are linked to the SRA plant breeding database with live updates if new information is entered into the database. QCANESelectTM provides reports in a range of formats on actual variety performance from mill statistics. Recent developments have extended the variety performance reports for Tully, Mackay and South Johnstone mills. The new variety performance reports allow users to examine variety performance by sub-district, crop class and, in the Mackay mills, by soil type. By examining actual performance, advisors can make better recommendations and growers can make better decisions for their farm. This paper examines the adoption of QCANESelectTM since 2008. Many web-based systems have been developed in the sugar and other agricultural industries. QCANESelectTM is an example of a web-based system that has seen increasing usage. The average monthly logons per year by the industry has risen by 35% per year from 2009 to 2013. The usage has a distinct seasonal pattern with increased use before and during planting seasons and reduced use from November to March. When users have logged onto the system they have been viewing more pages for each visit. In 2010, the average number of pages viewed per month by industry groups was 1284 and in 2013 it was 1701. The variety information page, which contains variety information sheets and tables of variety recommendations and disease ratings, is the most popular page to view, accounting for 59% of all pages viewed in the period. QCANESelectTM has been widely used by advisors and growers and the information provided by the system has even greater impact because advisors use the resources provided by QCANESelectTM to promote and recommend varieties in one-on-one contacts, in industry publications and at shed meetings and field days. We discuss the adoption statistics for QCANESelectTM in detail, the methods used to promote the system and future plans for development to improve the information provided.