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Abstract
Sugarcane farmers in many districts are considering on-farm water storages (OFWS’s) as a
means of countering ongoing water shortages. OFWS’s are attractive because they can be
used to capture runoff and tailwater, and for the temporary storage of surplus water from
other irrigation sources (eg allocation, out of allocation, water harvesting etc), thereby
providing increased flexibility in managing limited water supplies. The decision to invest in
such storages is, however, complex and multi-facetted, requiring assessment of a range of
biophysical, economic, legislative and social factors. Computer-based simulation models can
potentially capture many of these factors and their interactions, and hence, can play a useful
decision support role. In this paper, we describe and demonstrate a new software package
(Dam Ea$y) that couples biophysical and economic modelling tools, in a way that enables
analysis of various scenarios regarding investment in OFWS, and the likely benefits and costs
of such investments.