Australian Drought
From Sidney News
AFTER years of claims and counter-claims, new figures show cotton became the thirstiest crop in the whole Murray-Darling Basin two years ago, guzzling 20 per cent of all the water used for agriculture in region.
A groundbreaking report on the Murray-Darling by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals cotton was "consistently the crop with the highest water consumption" from 2000-01 to 2005-06, followed by dairy farming, growing pasture for livestock and rice.
And in key districts such as the Gwydir River in northern NSW, cotton used a whopping 87 per cent of the agricultural water in 2006. The numbers from the Border Rivers catchment, covering southern Queensland, reveal a similar story, with cotton using more than 80 per cent of agricultural water from that system.
The head of Cotton Australia, Adam Kay, said the figures on water use by the cotton industry reflected a choice by farmers in those years to use their water allocations to grow the most profitable crops. But as the drought deepened and farmers' water allocations dropped, cotton production fell and last year saw the smallest crop in 30 years.
"This year wheat is almost as competitive as cotton," Mr Kay said yesterday.
The new report comes as the political fight intensified over how to save the vital region that holds almost 40 per cent of Australia's farms, produces all its rice crop, half its wheat and apples, almost all its oranges, most of its pigs and a large number of dairy cattle.
Yesterday the South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, wound up the pressure, saying that anyone illegally diverting water in the Murray-Darling during the crisis, was engaging in "terrorism".
Mr Rann said he would ask the next meeting of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, which includes representatives from the state and federal governments, to impose jail sentences for large-scale water theft. "It is a criminal offence, and anyone siphoning water off illegally, in my view, should be locked up, rather than the fines that I am told are currently in place."
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is battling claims that Queensland has seriously added to the basin's water crisis and is being bailed out by his Government, which is planning to step up the buyback of water entitlements from heavy using irrigators.
At Thursday's cabinet meeting in Adelaide Mr Rudd said he would hasten his planned $400 million water buyback in an effort to get more water flowing from Queensland and NSW to the mouth of the Murray in South Australia, where the Lower Lakes and the world-famous wetlands of the Coorong are in crisis.
He bowed to pressure from the independent senator Nick Xenophon for an independent audit of water in the struggling Murray-Darling system that flows from Queensland to South Australia, but is largely in NSW.
The plan to step up buybacks was called a "knee-jerk reaction driven by loud minority groups" by the Irrigators Council. So far, the buybacks have largely been on paper as there is little water to buy because of the drought and low dam levels.
Mr Rudd is examining, with state governments, buying big properties with high water use.
Environmental groups have welcomed the buybacks and the independent water audit.
The National Farmers Federation backed the plan but stressed there was little water to buy back. "People must understand there simply is no water available to pump into ailing systems," said Laurie Arthur, who chairs the federation's water taskforce.
AFTER years of claims and counter-claims, new figures show cotton became the thirstiest crop in the whole Murray-Darling Basin two years ago, guzzling 20 per cent of all the water used for agriculture in region.
A groundbreaking report on the Murray-Darling by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals cotton was "consistently the crop with the highest water consumption" from 2000-01 to 2005-06, followed by dairy farming, growing pasture for livestock and rice.
And in key districts such as the Gwydir River in northern NSW, cotton used a whopping 87 per cent of the agricultural water in 2006. The numbers from the Border Rivers catchment, covering southern Queensland, reveal a similar story, with cotton using more than 80 per cent of agricultural water from that system.
The head of Cotton Australia, Adam Kay, said the figures on water use by the cotton industry reflected a choice by farmers in those years to use their water allocations to grow the most profitable crops. But as the drought deepened and farmers' water allocations dropped, cotton production fell and last year saw the smallest crop in 30 years.
"This year wheat is almost as competitive as cotton," Mr Kay said yesterday.
The new report comes as the political fight intensified over how to save the vital region that holds almost 40 per cent of Australia's farms, produces all its rice crop, half its wheat and apples, almost all its oranges, most of its pigs and a large number of dairy cattle.
Yesterday the South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, wound up the pressure, saying that anyone illegally diverting water in the Murray-Darling during the crisis, was engaging in "terrorism".
Mr Rann said he would ask the next meeting of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, which includes representatives from the state and federal governments, to impose jail sentences for large-scale water theft. "It is a criminal offence, and anyone siphoning water off illegally, in my view, should be locked up, rather than the fines that I am told are currently in place."
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is battling claims that Queensland has seriously added to the basin's water crisis and is being bailed out by his Government, which is planning to step up the buyback of water entitlements from heavy using irrigators.
At Thursday's cabinet meeting in Adelaide Mr Rudd said he would hasten his planned $400 million water buyback in an effort to get more water flowing from Queensland and NSW to the mouth of the Murray in South Australia, where the Lower Lakes and the world-famous wetlands of the Coorong are in crisis.
He bowed to pressure from the independent senator Nick Xenophon for an independent audit of water in the struggling Murray-Darling system that flows from Queensland to South Australia, but is largely in NSW.
The plan to step up buybacks was called a "knee-jerk reaction driven by loud minority groups" by the Irrigators Council. So far, the buybacks have largely been on paper as there is little water to buy because of the drought and low dam levels.
Mr Rudd is examining, with state governments, buying big properties with high water use.
Environmental groups have welcomed the buybacks and the independent water audit.
The National Farmers Federation backed the plan but stressed there was little water to buy back. "People must understand there simply is no water available to pump into ailing systems," said Laurie Arthur, who chairs the federation's water taskforce.
Labels: article, drought, water, water conservation, world
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