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ADAM BARCLAY (4)A SIGN of things to come in the Australian RiceIndustry? Leeton’s historic water towers, which arealmost 100 years old, are reminders of how wateravailability and the town’s fortunes are inextricablylinked.they shape their fields to make the bestpossible use of the water they have. Byusing clever contouring, coupled withwell-planned drainage and recirculationsystems, many Riverina farmers cangrow a winter crop by simply using theresidual moisture of the preceding ricecrop—no or minimal supplementaryirrigation is needed.Such efficient use of water(Australian rice growers are regardedwidely as the most water-efficient in theworld) is one of the arguments the riceindustry here uses to counter claims bymany—especially people living in theparched southern Australian cities—thatwater-thirsty rice simply shouldn’t begrown in temperate Australia. If youlook at rice as part of an annual croppingcycle, the water used per ton of foodproduced presents a far more compellingequation than that of rice viewed inisolation.Nevertheless, according to ArleneBuchan, healthy rivers campaignerfor the AustralianConservation Foundation(ACF), current levels ofwater allocation present amajor threat to rivers andwetlands in the Murray-Darling Basin. As thecountry’s food bowl andmost important riversystem, the basin supplieswater to the majority ofAustralia’s populationin the cities, towns,and farms across themore densely populatedsoutheast quarter of thecontinent.“Overextractionof water for irrigationis the biggest driverof environmentaldegradation,” says Dr.Buchan, who also pointsout that the ACF itself isnot anti-rice. “The wayyou fix things is not bymandating what cropsyou can grow in whatareas. You fix it by getting the sharing ofwater right. If you say to a rice or cottongrower, ‘no more rice, no more cotton,’they’re just going to grow something else.They’ll use the same amount of water,which doesn’t benefit the environment.”Rice: last in the hierarchyWater in the Murray-Darling Basinis allocated in a hierarchy, beginningwith “critical needs” (for domestic,industrial, and stock use), followed byso-called high-security entitlements(for permanent plantings such as fruittrees and grapevines), and finishing withgeneral security entitlements (for annualcrops such as rice and wheat). In timesof water shortage, allocations for annualcrops—which can be effectively switchedon and off each year—are slashed first.In this way, water availability dictateswhat farmers can and can’t grow. Theimplication is that, if allocations areappropriate, the question of banningspecific crops—such as rice or cotton—isa moot one.Coleambally rice grower LynneStuckings, who farms 405 hectares withher husband, John, grew around 145hectares of rice annually before 2003.“Since the drought, we’ve had a coupleof years without rice,” she laments. “Lastyear, we grew 24 hectares; this year,we’ve got 48 hectares.”Ms. Stuckings contends that manygrowers feel that there is sufficient waterallocated to the environment already,though she concedes that it’s a farmer’spoint of view. Regardless, she says, “Welook after our environment—we want topass our farm on to future generations.We’re not actually wasting water; we’regrowing food with it.”Wayne Meyer, professor of naturalresources science at the Universityof Adelaide, spent almost 2 decadesworking on irrigation issues in theRiverina region with the CommonwealthScientific Industrial and ResearchOrganisation (CSIRO) and Charles SturtUniversity. He agrees with the ACF thatthere needs to be a rebalancing of waterallocations.“The evidence is absolutely starkthat the water entitlements have beenoverallocated,” he says.When the allocation system wasset up, there was less environmentalawareness, in general, and thegovernment awarded licenses in numbers“which far exceeded in dry times anycapacity for the system to deliver,” saysProf. Meyer. “The consequence is thatLEETON FARMER Rob Houghton manages theirrigation of the soybean field that wouldhave been full of rice if not for the Riverinaregion’s 8-year (and counting) drought.14 Rice Today April-June 2010