Irrigation And Its Importance To Agriculture In Tasmania

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Tasmania is situated in the southern part of the Australian continent, considered a splendid getaway island that boasts of untouched wilderness, thousand-year-old trees, rugged coastlines, and rushing whitewater rivers. Tasmania is capable of producing high quality farm products. Its fertile soil, temperate climate and adequate water supply complemented by developed irrigation systems, all contribute to its progressive agricultural industry. In Tasmania, agriculture plays a major part in the economy as there are other industrial sectors that also rely in agriculture.

The government of Australia is oblivious to the fact that agriculture plays a key role in their economy and for this reason, the need to closely monitor and strengthen their irrigation systems in the face of calamities like drought and natural disasters is but imperative. One third of Tasmanias 68000 square kilometers land area is attributed to the agricultural industry which is why irrigation plays an integral part in its agricultural sector.

Statistics reveal that 14,000 gigaliters or 65% of the total water consumed are used for irrigation of agricultural land in Australia. It is alarming to note that this amount of water is not efficiently used the way it should be. Here lies the importance of an efficient irrigation system so that water can be conserved and utilized for the right purpose.

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Influence Of The New Moon

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Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity speaks that every particle attracts every other particle with a force that depends on their masses and the distance between them. The moon constantly attracts the earth behaves like a loose garment that can be pulled out from the body to fall back again. It implies that every day, when the moon is directly overhead, the water of the earth flows out towards the moon, and causes high tide. Hence, during the full moon, the attraction is greater than the normal. Dr. Lyall Watson writes in Supernature (London, 1973, p. 49) that, “Every drop of water in the ocean responds to this force, and every living marinal animal and plant is made aware of the rhythm. The lives of those that inhabit the margins of the seas depend entirely on this awareness.”

Sir J.G. Frazer has discussed the influence of the new moon and propounded that it brings fertility and causes growth in agriculture (The Golden Bough, London, 1956, p. 128). Sir Frank Browne writes in his remarks in 1964 that, “The life of the oyster has a marked rhythm that corresponds to the tidal rhythm of the waters. The fascinating thing; however was that the behaviour of all the oysters had altered in exactly the same way, and they were still keeping time with each other. The oysters had adopted a new rhythm and now opened up at the time of tide. This is the first piece of scientific evidence to show that even an organism living away from the ocean tides could be influenced by the coming out of new moon” (Living Organism, London, 1969, p. 12).

The small silver fish, known as Grunion survives on its response to the lunar cycle. Shortly after the new moon from March to August, the Grunion appears on the surface on the shores of California. The Grunion leave their eggs buried in the wet sand undisturbed for two weeks, because the waves of water will not come until new moon. When the spring tide occurs, the larvae have completely developed and they break out of the eggs and swim away through the surf. The ability of the Grunion to reproduce is thus controlled by the new moon.

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Ismailis In Iran

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Tradition has it that Imam Muhammad bin Ismail left Medina and went to southern Iraq, where he acquired the epithet of al-maktum (veiled one), and then at Nishapur in disguise, where he lodged for some times. Afterwards, the Imam proceeded towards Ray, about 15 miles from Tehran. Ishaq bin al-Abbas al-Farsi, the Abbasid governor of Ray professed Ismailism. Imam betrothed to Fatima, the daughter of Sarah, sister of Ishaq bin al-Abbas. When the news of Imam Muhammad bin Ismail’s stay at Ray reached the ears of Harun ar-Rashid, he wrote to Ishaq bin al-Abbas, ordering to arrest the Imam and send him to Baghdad. Upon receipt of caliph’s letter, he showed it to the Imam and replied to the caliph that he found no trace of the Imam, and would send as soon as he was arrested, and thus he tried to put the caliph off the scent. But the spies planted by Baghdad reported to the caliph that Imam Muhammad bin Ismail not only was living at governor’s house, but that he was operating his mission from there. Upon this, the caliph wrote another letter to Ishaq bin al-Abbas, impugning him to come in person with his forces if his orders were not obeyed forthwith. The governor however made his usual reply. Meanwhile, the complaints about Ali bin Musa bin Mahan, the governor of Khorasan reached the point where Harun ar-Rashid could no longer ignore them, and adopted a militant stance. In 189/805, he marched towards Ray with a detachment of his army, and after searching for the Imam through a tracking party, ordered to arrest Ishaq bin al-Abbas. Ishaq died as a result of severe torture inflicted upon him, and was rigorously flogged till death. He did not waver and stood steadfast in spite of excruciating tortures. In spite of the gloomy situation, his faith remained unshakable.

Imam Muhammad bin Ismail selected Hurmuz as a mission centre, and then had made his footing at the fortified city of Nihawand, where he stayed with the governor, Mansur bin Jowshan, who had close ties with Ishaq bin al-Abbas. He allotted the Imam a piece of land in the district of Sarha, where he led a peaceful living. It is related that the Abbasid agent, named Muhammad bin Ali al-Khorasani, who surprised the Imam in a mosque, traced the Imam out on one day in Sarha. He was greatly impressed to behold the Imam, and lost courage to arrest him, and permitted the Imam to escape. Thence, the Imam went to Azar in Khuzistan. The Imam then proceeded to Shapur. Disguised as a merchant, he stayed in Shapur with a certain Qamas bin Nuh, whose daughter Rabta, he married. When the Abbasids intensified their search for the Ismaili Imam to its extreme, Imam Muhammad bin Ismail had to travel out of Iran

Imam Wafi Ahmad came to settle down in Nihawand, and betrothed to Amina, daughter of Hamdan, son of Mansur bin Jowshan, who was from Kazirun. The brother of Wafi Ahmad also married here and had a posterity. Imam Wafi Ahmad further on repaired to Daylam with his 32 trusted da’is, where he got married with an Alid lady in the village of Ashnash. The adoption of strict taqiya, and moving from one to another place, forced the Imam to assign the mission works to his brother, Hussain bin Muhammad. It is most possible that Imam Wafi Ahmad lived in Suk al-Ahwaz for a short period.

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OLAP processes vast queries

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Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) helps to process vast queries online. Queries are multi dimensional and analytical. It is a part of business intelligence. It includes relational reporting and data mining. OLAP gives service in the area of business reporting for sales, business process management, marketing, management reporting etc. It also includes new areas like agriculture. The term OLAP is derived from another term which is OLTP (Online Transaction Processing).

OLAP contains some databases which use a multidimensional data model. It facilitates complex analytical and vast queries very fast. Some aspects are common to navigational as well as hierarchical databases. These databases are more speedier than relational databases. The result of an OLAP query is generally displayed in the matrix format. It is also called pivot format. Rows and columns of the matrix are made from the dimensions and the values are formed by the measures.

An OLAP cube is there in the core of an OLAP system. It is also called a multidimensional cube or a hypercube. Some numeric facts are there which is called measures. They are classified into the dimensions. We get measures from the records of the fact table and dimensions from the dimensions tables. A set of labels or its meta-data are meant by a measure. These labels are described by a dimension. It contains information about measure. For example a cube contains a store’s sales which is the measure and the date/time which is dimension. Each sale contains date/time label which describes that sale in more detail.

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