Macquarie River Food and Fibre has estimated that the value of irrigated agricultural production across the Macquarie Valley this season will be in the order of $150 million as irrigators respond to the ongoing dry conditions by reducing annual crop plantings.
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Executive Officer Susan Madden said the valley’s cotton crop is always a good proxy for overall irrigated agricultural production in the valley.
“This season about 20,000 hectares (ha) have been planted to cotton, compared to just over 40,000 ha last year,” Ms Madden said.
“This decline is directly attributable to the decline in water availability.
“With the current year general security allocation at just 6 per cent, most producers are relying on account water that was held in storage, or ‘carried over’ from previous years.
“Last year we saw a 60 per cent decline in the storage level at Burrendong Dam, from 100 per cent to 40 per cent at the end of the 2012/13 water year, which meant that most irrigators and environmental water holders did not use their full allocations, opting instead to ‘carry over’ water into this year.”
Ms Madden said MRFF expects that given the ongoing dry conditions most carry over water will be accessed this summer, which failing any substantial inflows would see irrigators and environmental water holders draw on the equivalent of 30 per cent of Burrendong’s storage by the end of the irrigation season.
“It is important to note that this type of water use is not unusual for the Macquarie system and will not affect the security of the valley’s essential requirements, like town water supplies, stock and domestic rights, or high security entitlements, which are already provided for in storage reserves,” she said.
“The Macquarie River system typically has a very high degree of annual variability, and as a result, irrigators holding general security licences have become adept at managing seasonal fluctuations.
“Use of the valley’s carry over and trade provisions, and farming systems that allow for annual variations in supply are key features of the Macquarie irrigation industry.
“The valley’s producers have become very skilful at managing the water they have available to them, and despite the lower allocation this year we are still expecting quite a strong level of production.”