Murray towns 'living hand to mouth'
Hundreds of thousands of fruit trees have been pulled out, rice production has plunged by 93pc and vineyards lie abandoned as the "irrigation drought" continues unabated in Australia's southern food bowl.

Pupil numbers at local schools were falling much faster than the Education Department had predicted, but governments did not seem to recognise the alarm signals, said Bruce Simpson, agribusiness director of Peppin Finance in Deniliquin.

Some families could not afford $2 or $5 for school excursions and schools were providing breakfast because young students were not having it at home.

The president of the Ricegrowers' Association, Les Gordon, said: "The longevity of these industries and communities has to be a real issue.

"I'm watching farmers leave farms and get jobs … sell water entitlements because the banks told them to, or make premature retirement plans."

Drought claims Murray businesses

Six in 10 wine-grape growers in South Australia's Riverland told a recent survey they would like to get out, and in Victoria's Murray Valley, 200 have left the industry as the irrigation drought canes them.

A combination of low water allocations, lack of rain, searing heatwave and a price plunge had led to a significant loss of vines, said the executive director of Wine Grape Growers Australia, Mark McKenzie.

"A number [of growers] are trying to leave the industry, however, their asset value has devalued so much, they have nowhere to go and those who are buyers are sweeping vultures. So the whole region is suffering and there is no light at the end of the tunnel," Mr Thiel said.

The state's water allocation of 18pc was barely enough to keep trees alive, let alone grow a crop, he said.

The Sunraysia district lost 50pc of its food production last season and will lose another 50pc again, she said.

Water leapt from $50 a megalitre to $1400 last June and it was breaking those people who were trying to keep their plantings alive.

Originally posted by ChadwickusYeah there's a lot of reading there but it shows how seriously they are taking it doesn't it?

Originally posted by ownoiz

Originally posted by ChadwickusLike I said, some of those sources are dodgy, you might want to re-check them because ones saying things like the MDB supplies 50% of Australia's fresh food supply is totally wrong.

OK that may be incorrect, because some sources say its even more..

From wikipedia...

The Murray-Darling Basin is 3,375 km long, drains one-seventh of the Australian land mass, and is currently by far the most significant agricultural area in Australia. The name of the basin is derived from its two major rivers, the Murray River and the Darling River.

Although the Murray-Darling Basin receives 6% of Australia's annual rainfall, a very large proportion of Australia's irrigation resources are concentrated there. It contains 42% of the nation's farmland and produces 75% of the nation's food.

Heres the link en.wikipedia.org...

Who is more "totally wrong" here, you or me?

The Murray-Darling Basin covers 1,061,469 square kilometres or approximately one-seventh (14%) of the total area of Australia (7,692,024 square kilometres).

It contains over 40% of all Australian farms, which produce wool, cotton, wheat, sheep, cattle, dairy produce, rice, oil-seed, wine, fruit and vegetables for both domestic and overseas markets. As Australia's most important agricultural region, the Basin produces one third of Australia's food supply and supports over a third of Australia's total gross value of agricultural production.

Three quarters of Australia's irrigated crops and pastures are grown in the Basin. While agricultural production is vital to our economy, the Murray-Darling Basin is much more than simply a "food basket". It has an important place in the cultural heritage of all Australians and includes many significant natural heritage features

However, as shown in 2001 Agricultural Census, the drought conditions which have occurred over the last decade (since about 1995) have affected, to varying degrees, almost all parts of the Basin resulting in reduced output and therefore the incomes of many agricultural enterprises.

In managing the Basin’s natural resources, the MDBC is consistently aware of the crucial link between ‘profitability’ and ‘sustainability’. It promotes awareness of the need for changes to the management of the land and water resources of the Basin and is coordinating salinity management at a Basin scale; including monitoring the health of the Basin rivers and is also responsible for coordinating distribution of water from the Murray River to New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

AGRIBUSINESS Futuris Corporation has sold a further 14.99 per cent stake in beef producer Australian Agricultural Company.

The stake was offloaded for $67.4 million to interests controlled by privately-owned United Arab Emirates-based business house IFFCO Group.

Much of the sovereign wealth investment was coming from Arabian Gulf states with limited natural resources, where food shortages had in some cases led to riots and social unrest. These type of investors took a long-term view, with less emphasis on return on investment.

The Qatar Investment Authority, for example, had $1 billion to invest in food and agriculture projects around the world, primarily to reinforce food supply to the gulf state. Some of this would be targeted at North Africa and South America, and some could be invested in Australia.