Australia Battles Worst Drought In A Century - 430million $ Relief Programme

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aKnXT2R4APnU

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Australia will spend an extra A$430 million ($363 million) on relief for farmers facing the worst drought in a century.

Prime Minister John Howard said the timeframe for people receiving ``exceptional circumstances'' aid would be extended to September 2008 from its current deadline of March. The government also will extend the assistance to areas of Western Australia and Tasmania. The extra money, from the 2007-08 budget, comes on top of A$2.4 billion spent on drought assistance since 2001.

``We're announcing a package which will provide an additional $430 million of drought assistance to farmers throughout Australia,'' Howard said in a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg.

Australia is struggling to recover from the nation's worst drought in a century, which cut economic growth last fiscal year by 0.75 percent. Lingering dry weather is threatening crop production this harvest, helping send global wheat prices to a record and forcing farmers to sell livestock they can't feed.

``This drought has reached a scale that is unprecedented,'' David Crombie, president of the National Farmers' Federation, said in an e-mailed statement. ``Adding insult to injury, demand for global agricultural commodities is at record highs, with many prices at their highest levels since the 1980s.''

Crombie said conditions in the Murray-Darling Basin, where 40 percent of Australian crops are grown, were ``extreme and deteriorating daily'' and that exceptional-circumstances funding may be needed to address a ``crisis'' there.

Australia is vying with Canada to be the world's largest wheat exporter after the U.S. It is the second-largest beef exporter.

Howard, 68, is trailing the opposition Labor Party in opinion polls ahead of an election due by early December. The National Party, the junior member with Howard's Liberals in the governing coalition, represents rural areas and has 17 members of parliament.

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Australia is overpopulated.

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http://i14.tinypic.com/66yahz4.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray-Darling_Basin

The Murray-Darling Basin being 3430km long, drains one-seventh of the Australian land mass and is currently by far the most significant agricultural area in Australia. Most of the 1,061,469 km² basin is flat, low-lying and far inland, and receives little rainfall. The many rivers it contains tend to be long and slow-flowing, and carry a volume of water that is large only by Australian standards however many people are complaining that upriver dams are stopping the water flow to NSW. Although the Murray-Darling Basin receives only 6% of Australia's annual rainfall, over 70% of Australia's irrigation resources are concentrated there. It contains 42% of the nation's farmland and produces 40% of the nation's food.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/Near-Burra-Creek.jpg

Of the approximately 13,000 gigalitres of flow in the basin which studies have shown to be divertible, 11,500 gigalitres is removed for irrigation, industrial use, and domestic supply. Agricultural irrigation accounts for about 95% of the water removed, with the growing of rice and cotton being highly controversial among scientists in Australia owing to their high water use in a region extremely short of water (as much due to exceptionally low runoff coefficients as to low rainfall).

The federal government has attempted to take over control of the Murray-Darling basin from the states in a 10 billion $ deal - New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and ACT have agreed but Victoria has not, although the Victoria Farmers' Federation supports the plan. The federal government is most of the way through legal proceedings to overrule Victoria.

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This is particularly embarrassing for Australia as it had just started to develop its economy by exporting higher-end food products to the developing markets of China/India/Russia.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Business/Emerging-economies-demanding-Aussie-food/2007/09/17/1189881427005.html

Austrade will bring about 250 key buyers from Asia, Middle East, North America and the Pacific region to the Fine Food exhibition in Sydney on September 24 to 27.

oh dear :(

[John Abney-Hastings]

There is still food, but the price of vegetables and meat are much higher than usual.

[Larrikin]

I worked in Melbourne (for CWW) and Perth (for Perth WC) last year on water saving issues.
It is ridiculous how much water is used by private households when resources are so scarce. It is about time Australians realize the situation and change their behaviour towards water consumption. Both in private consumption and industrial use.

[John Abney-Hastings]

actually Larrikin in Victoria, 90% of water is used on farming, and 90% of that (81% of total) is used on dairy farming. It's the most water inefficient industry ever, and it's going to kill us all.

[Larrikin]

It's very true that household consumption is not the worst part in Victoria where irrigation accounts for 78% of water use. And the cost-benefit of dairy farming is indeed very poor. It takes more than 1,500 litres of water to generate 1$ GNE. They even grow rice in Vic! Hard to believe in a drought striken environment...

But there is still some potential in domestic use though, because it is rather easily done. Almost any household can save 10-25% water without loss of living standard.

But as long as the government doesn't get harder on the farmers and developes a new agricultural water use scheme and new catchment regulations, domestic savings are just limiting the most desastrous effects on the cities. You're absolutely right here.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

actually Larrikin in Victoria, 90% of water is used on farming, and 90% of that (81% of total) is used on dairy farming. It's the most water inefficient industry ever, and it's going to kill us all.

That is an alarming statistic. What is worse is that our milk and associated products taste and smell awful when compared to European dairy and I have no idea as to why. Why we persist with sht products and services (milk amongst them) I don't know.

[John Abney-Hastings]

Larrikin's figure of 78% is correct as is my figure of 90%. That is, 78% applies to irrigation whereas 90% applies to all farming including non-irrigated crops.

The water savings that really matter are made when irrigation channels are turned into pipelines, preventing losses via evaporation.

The other great way to get more water would be a dam on the King River (a real dam, not the puny weir that's there now), which would also prevent the annual flooding of Gippsland.

I love saying dam! :rofl: