Australian farmers to lose third of irrigation water in river rescue plan

Farmers would lose more than a third of irrigation water in Australia's major food bowl, the Murray-Darling, under a plan released yesterday to restore ailing rivers, posing a new headache for the Labour minority government.

The move could see the value of cotton production cut by 25 per cent, and farmers and irrigators have warned of farm closures, massive job losses and higher food prices if the plan by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority is adopted.

Environmentalists welcome the cuts, saying they will help Australia's major river system survive future droughts.

Prime minister Julia Gillard's fragile one-seat majority government is dependent on support from rural independents and the Green party and will have to balance both interests in deciding whether to adopt the plan by the end of 2011.

Under the plan, irrigation rights would be cut by 3,000- 4,000 gigalitres a year, cutting water supplies to farmers by 27-37 per cent, with the government buying back water licences to compensate farmers.

"Cutting water use will reduce the supply of food and fibre and increase the number of farmers leaving the land, resulting in the destruction of farm and rural communities," said Victorian Farmers' Federation president Andrew Broad. But the authority said the cuts were needed to guarantee the long-term health of the nation's major rivers, which have suffered neglect and over-allocation for irrigation.

"The real possibility of environmental failure now threatens the long-term economic and social viability of many industries and the economic, social and cultural strength of many communities," the 200-page report into the river system said.

The Green Party, which will control the Senate from July 2011, called for the government to stand by the plan.

"We've known for years the (irrigation] system has been over-allocated, now it's time to get the balance right," said Green senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

"We need a sustainable river system - it's the only way to keep communities around the river sustainable as well."

The Murray-Darling basin is Australia's food bowl, accounting for 40 per cent of agricultural production and 93 per cent of domestic food production.

It covers an area the size of France and Spain combined.

The basin contains Australia's three biggest rivers, the 1,550-mile Murray, the 1,700-mile Darling and the 1,000-mile Murrumbidgee.

However, too much irrigation, lack of inflows and rising salinity are so bad that for eight years, no fresh water has flowed into the sea at the mouth of the Murray River.