A sunburned grain Stamps of approval Pockets of gold in ... - adron.sr

THE RIVERINA: AUSTRALIA'SRICE-GROWING REGIONLachlan RiverMurrumbidgeeIrrigation AreaM.I.A.GriffithYendaADAPTED BY LAURIE LEWIN FROM THE RICEGROWERS' ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIANEW SOUTHWALESLeetonYancoSydneyColeamballyIrrigation AreaC.I.A.ColeamballyLeetonYancoGeelongVICTORIAWagga WaggaCanberraACTMelbourneBASS STRAITTASMANSEAMurray ValleyIrrigation DistrictsM.V.I.D.Edward RiverMurrumbidgee RiverEchucaMurray RiverDeniliquinNno mandatory water buybacks, manyfarmers see little choice.“The government says they onlybuy from willing sellers, but they’re notactually willing,” says Ms. Stuckings.“They’re farmers under duress becausewe’re in drought. And banks are startingto put pressure on people, too, so peoplehave no other options.”Coleambally offers, perhaps, themost striking example of a strategy todeal with drought. With the governmentlooking to purchase water allocationsquickly, there were worries that thearea would disintegrate into a messypatchwork of irrigated and drylandfarms with an unworkable water supplysystem in between. Envisaging direconsequences for the community,Robert Black, then chairman of theColeambally Irrigation Area, in August2008, offered the whole town up for saleto the government for AU$3.5 billion($3.2 billion). All of it. Every business,every shop, every home, along with everyRICEGROWERS' ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIAKANGAROOS BOUND through a winter wheatcrop, grown on the residual moisture ofthe preceding rice crop—with little or nosupplementary irrigation.drop of the area’s 600,000 megaliters ofwater entitlements. Although nobodytook the sale seriously, it made thepoint that, if the government is to buywater allocations, it needs to do so in aconsidered, strategic way.Mr. Houghton says that a portionof the farmers who have sold theirallocations have stayed on their propertybecause they want to remain farmers, buthave changed their operations to grazingor dryland cropping. Others, especiallyolder farmers, have used the sale as anopportunity to exit agriculture. But,overall, “There hasn’t been a ‘sell andmove out; there’s no future in this’ kindof mentality.”Sunny outlookSeveral factors combine to make ricein Australia successful: the climate(when there’s enough water), whichprovides a huge amount of sunlight;expert producers who average around10 tons per hectare (with some growersachieving more than 14 tons); and thetight integration of the production,commercial, and research arms of theindustry.The commercial arm is representedby Ricegrowers Limited (trading underthe name SunRice), a company owned16 Rice Today April-June 2010