Ricegrowers' Water Toolkit (Republished)

Access to water is fundamental to every rice farming business, and this resource is provided to assist growers to better manage their water risk in a rapidly changing environment.

These changes have been brought about by government regulation, climatic variability, irrigator behaviour, commodity performances and technological advances. These factors make the business environment for irrigators complex and dynamic.

Understanding factors influencing water availability and market options available is an important part of irrigators’ businesses. The task of being informed and accessing information can be challenging and time consuming. The market options available to irrigators are expanding; there is competition for access to water from other industries and the environment, and new business models are developing in irrigated agriculture.

This Toolkit has been prepared to provide irrigators with information to improve their knowledge of and access to water information. It is intended to assist rice growers with their planning decisions including decisions about water ownership and purchasing strategies.

The Toolkit focusses on water availability in the southern Murray-Darling Basin (Basin) and delivery in the New South Wales (NSW) Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys, the centre of Riverina rice growing.

The Toolkit is structured to be a reference to assist irrigators to navigate water risk management; each chapter providing stand-alone information. 

// Ricegrowers' Association of Australia, 2022