IRRIGATION PRACTICES

The following section describes a variety of irrigation management practices that irrigators in the MDB employed in 2004-05, using data from the ABS Natural Resource Management Survey. For further detail on MDB NRM regions, refer to Chapter 5, and map 5.1.

Irrigation occurred on approximately one-third (16,600) of farms within MDB Natural Resource Management (NRM) regions in 2004-05 (table 3.28). Most irrigated farms in the MDB were located in the Goulburn Broken, South Australia (SA) Murray Darling Basin, Murrumbidgee, North Central, Mallee, and Murray NRM regions (map 3.29). Each region contained more than 1,500 irrigated farms. More than 70% of MDB irrigated farms were located within those regions.

More than 50% of farms in the Lower Murray Darling, Mallee, Goulburn Broken and SA Murray Darling Basin NRM regions were irrigated. There were very few irrigated farms in the Australian Capital Territory, South West (QLD), Western, Maranoa Balonne and Wimmera regions.

3.28 Irrigated and non-irrigated farms, by NRM region—Murray-Darling Basin—2004-05
	Irrigated farms	Proportion of total farms	Non-irrigated farms	Proportion of total farms	Total farms(a)
	No.	%	No.	%	No.
Border rivers/Gwydir	300	13	2 200	87	2 600
Central West	700	13	4 700	87	5 500
Lachlan	500	9	5 000	91	5 500
Lower Murray Darling	400	62	300	38	700
Murray	1 500	48	1 600	52	3 000
Murrumbidgee	1 900	35	3 600	65	5 500
Namoi	500	19	2 300	81	2 900
Western	100	9	700	91	800
Goulburn Broken	2 700	53	2 400	47	5 000
Mallee	1 700	61	1 100	39	2 900
North Central	1 900	41	2 700	59	4 500
North East	700	33	1 500	67	2 200
Wimmera	200	7	2 100	93	2 300
Border rivers	400	41	600	59	1 000
Condamine	800	24	2 600	76	3 400
Maranoa Balonne	100	7	1 300	93	1 400
South West	-	4	500	96	500
SA Murray Darling Basin	2 200	53	1 900	47	4 100
ACT	-	15	100	85	100
Murray-Darling Basin(a)	16 600	31	37 300	69	53 900
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Components may not add to total due to rounding.
Source: ABS data available on request, Natural Resource Management Survey 2004-05

Irrigation management practices are the subject of strong interest for policy makers and water resource managers in the MDB (see Appendix). Improvements to on-farm water savings is a central part of the 2007 National Plan for Water Security (DEWHA 2007b). Through Drought assistance and Exceptional Circumstances support programs (see Chapter 4), several measures are available for farmers located within the MDB (DAFF 2007a). These included grants for activities related to:

• improving on-farm water management practices to increase water use efficiency;
• mitigating the affect of reduced water allocations; and
• maximising production from the water that is available.

It should be noted when analysing the data outlined below that several factors could affect these results. For example, water availability or drought could affect various regions of the MDB differently, thereby influencing irrigation practices. Further, the trade of water may be more feasible in some irrigation areas than others due to infrastructure or regulations. Also, the targeting of NRM funding may have been more intense in some regions compared to others, affecting the uptake of more efficient water use technologies by irrigators. Finally, by their nature, some water management practices might be implemented less frequently than others. Therefore, if irrigators implemented some practices before the reference period, the change to that practice would not have been reported for that year.

Approximately two-thirds of irrigators in the MDB changed their water management practices during 2004-05 (table 3.30). In 2004-05, the most common changes to irrigation practices in the MDB (as a proportion of total MDB irrigated farms) were:

• adopting more efficient irrigation techniques (35%);
• undertaking more efficient irrigation scheduling (27%);
• reducing area under irrigation (20%);
• laser levelling (17%); and
• purchasing extra irrigation water (16%).

The least commonly adopted irrigation management practices included: improving the quality of water run-off (3% of irrigated farms) and installing piping or covering open channels (7%).

3.30 Changes to irrigation practices, by irrigated farms—Murray-Darling Basin—2004-05
		Number of irrigated farms	Proportion of total irrigated farms
		no.	%
Did not change practices		5 900	36
Changed		10 700	64
	Reduced the area under irrigation	3 300	20
	Increased the area under irrigation	1 300	8
	Adopted more efficient irrigation techniques	5 800	35
	Adopted more efficient irrigation scheduling	4 500	27
	Purchased extra irrigation water	2 700	16
	Sold irrigation water	1 300	8
	Installed piping and/or covered open channels to reduce water loss	1 200	7
	Laser levelled areas to improve water management	2 800	17
	Introduced reused or recycled irrigation water	1 800	11
	Improved quality of water runoff	600	3
	Installed soil moisture sensors	1 500	9
	Other	500	3
Total irrigated farms(a)		16 600	100
(a) Total irrigators who changed practices does not equal the sum of the types of changes made, as farmers could report more than one type of change.
Source: ABS data available on request, Natural Resource Management Survey 2004–05

The following maps show the proportion of farms undertaking a range of irrigation practices for 2004-05. As there were significantly more irrigated farms (>1,500) in the Goulburn Broken, SA Murray Darling Basin, Murrumbidgee, North Central, Mallee and Murray NRM regions (table 3.28 above), the majority of this analysis will focus on these six NRM regions. Due to data quality and confidentiality concerns, the data have been presented in ranges, and as a proportion of the total irrigated farms in NRM regions.

In 2004–05, of the NRM regions with more than 1,500 irrigators, 36% or more of the total irrigated farms in the Murray, Murrumbidgee, SA Murray Darling Basin NRM regions changed to more efficient irrigation techniques (map 3.31). These techniques were less commonly adopted by farms in Goulburn Broken, North Central and Mallee NRM regions.

In 2004-05, of the NRM regions with more than 1,500 irrigated farms, SA Murray Darling Basin had a higher proportion of farms that changed to more efficient irrigation scheduling (30 to 42%) than in the other five NRM regions (map 3.32).

In 2004-05, of the NRM regions with more than 1,500 irrigated farms, the reduction of irrigation area was more commonly undertaken by irrigated farms in the Murray, North Central and Murrumbidgee NRM regions (between 40% and 60% of total irrigated farms). This change to irrigation practices was less commonly carried out in SA Murray Darling Basin and Goulburn Broken, and least in the Mallee (map 3.33).

In 2004-05, a higher proportion of irrigated farms (32% or more) in the Murray NRM region changed their irrigation practices by laser levelling than the other NRM regions with more than 1,500 irrigated farms: Murrumbidgee, Goulburn Broken, North Central and SA Murray Darling Basin (map 3.34).

In 2004-05, of the NRM regions with more than 1,500 irrigated farms, purchasing additional irrigation water was more commonly undertaken (15% to 35%) in the south east of the MDB in the Murray, Murrumbidgee, North Central and Goulburn Broken NRM regions. Relatively few irrigated farms (1% to 15%) purchased extra water in the south west MDB - within the SA Murray Darling Basin and Mallee NRM regions (map 3.35).

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