Water treatment company boosts food production

For the past 30 years Australian water company DELTAwater solutions has played a significant role in boosting food production around the world.

North Queensland lime orchardist Phil Oliver says his family wouldn’t be farming without the DELTA, which they have installed on the bore water supply at their 600-tree Tahitian lime orchard at Biboohra, north of Mareeba, as well as on their household water supply.

“People call me and ask why I’ve got so many limes and I tell them we wouldn’t be here without the DELTA. Since we put our DELTA on our bore water supply we’ve consistently had four times the amount of produce, and in some years we grow seven times as much as neighbouring farms.”

Phil and Lisa have also value-added to their business by growing passionfruit.

“We have vines growing where they shouldn’t be; the vines haven’t stopped flowering and the passionfruit are full of seeds. Even though our bore water is salty, something passionfruit objects to, they’re as happy as Larry thanks to our DELTAwater conditioner,” Phil says.

30 years of DELTAwater

Alex and Dianne Panov established DELTAwater solutions in Newcastle in 1993. They’ve developed a customised range of products to suit problems such as salinity, calcium-scale buildup, iron, corrosion and water hardness.

“Our customers range from large-scale irrigators and farmers with obvious water needs, to businesses and individuals on town supplies dissatisfied and frustrated with deteriorating water quality,” Alex says.

“With water so scarce, people need to get the best from what water they have. More and more people are tapping into bores which need treatment to limit the impact of its high mineral or salt content. This is where the DELTAwater technology steps in.”

Dianne and Alex Panov at the Hunter Business Awards where they won Business of the Year and Most Innovative Business.

Lucerne irrigation

Helidon Lucerne grower Robert Hogan relies heavily on his bore water and since installing a DELTA he is harvesting around 4000 extra bales annually.

“The DELTA has made a hell of a difference here,” Robert says. “Over the whole farm we’ve gone from only doing 17-20 bales a paddock to around 40 bales. That equates to around 4000 extra bales a year.”

Fruit and vegetables

WA market gardener Ben Tran says the DELTA technology has resulted in higher, stronger plants with better yields at the Bullsbrook property he runs with his parents.

Ben, dad Tran and mum Ma watched their capsicum crop climb for the sky after installing a DELTAwater treatment system on their bore irrigation supply. The yield climbed too.

The family turned to DELTA technology to counteract the toll their groundwater, with its high levels of sodium and chloride, was taking on plant growth and yield.

“If you have a stronger plant, you can get a higher plant.  DELTA added another 30 centimetres of growth to our plants and our capsicum yield was a lot more. We also use DELTA-treated water on strawberries, tomatoes, eggplants and watermelons,” Ben says.

Cropping and livestock

NSW farmer Stephen Way remembers how good it felt to walk through a two-metre high canola crop after installing a DELTAwater conditioner.

After seeing a DELTAwater solutions treatment at work on his neighbour’s property, Stephen purchased the first of several units he has now installed.

“We put in about 400 acres of irrigated canola in a paddock where the bore water killed lucerne the season before, and it was the best paddock of canola we had,’’ Stephen says.

“DELTAwater definitely chucked us a big lifeline back then, and continues to do so. It’s made water that was basically useless valuable again. In the years of drought since installing the DELTA, I very much doubt whether we’d even be here.’’

DELTAwater solutions is also boosting food production in other parts of the world including Egypt, South Africa, New Zealand, the US and India. The DELTAwater water treatment products are power, maintenance and chemical free and treat unlimited volumes of water.

Dianne and Alex with the custom designed water treatment conditioner for cotton irrigation in Texas, US.