Almost two thirds of irrigated land in Australia lies within the Murray-Darling Basin, where, in 2005-6, the volume of water applied (7,370 gigalitres) was more than two thirds of the total volume irrigated nationally.

The cotton and rice sectors continually inform us that graziers are the largest group user of Murray-Darling water. This is indeed the case; however, despite assurances that the cotton and rice growers are committed to best-practice irrigation techniques, 2005-6 figures recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show unequivocally that, on a dollar per irrigated litre basis, the cultivation of cotton and rice cannot be justified, under current and projected climatic conditions:

MEAT, DAIRY AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS:

Total value: $ 17 billion: produced using 23% of the total volume of irrigated water used on crops and pastures;  1,981 gigalitres of which was extracted from the Murray-Darling Basin.

COTTON:

Total value: Less than  $ 1 billion: produced using 16% of the total volume of irrigated water used on crops and pastures; 1,574 gigalitres of which was extracted from the Murray-Darling Basin.

RICE:

Total value: $ 0.25 billion: produced using 12% of the total volume of irrigated water used on crops and pastures; 1,252 gigalitres of which was extracted from the Murray-Darling Basin

These figures indicate that, on a productivity basis, graziers use irrigated water 15 times more efficiently than the combined cotton and rice sectors.

The Federal Government should put an end to this profligate sequestration of water to grow cotton and rice in the Murray-Darling basin, if only because of its very poor efficiency in turning water extracted from the basin into profits. When the damaging and widespread environmental and social impacts of these minority activities are also factored-in, can anyone without vested interests really make a sage argument in favour of allowing such crops to be grown in the catchment?