California farmers
face many obstacles in the process of turning land and water into a food supply
for themselves and the other 98 percent of the population that are unconnected
to farming. There is a constant struggle to overcome what Mother Nature throws
at farmers including unpredictable weather, flood, drought, pests and diseases.
Man-made challenges come in the form of laws and regulations that often defy
logic, yet are as significant as any natural impediment to efficient and
profitable food production.
On a recent trip to
Australia I had the opportunity to meet a handful of people that work the land
producing food and fiber with the same zeal and hardy nature that I've seen in
California. And not surprising one common challenge shared by California
farmers and their Aussie cousins is finding a way to help consumers understand
the connection between farm water and the food they eat.
At the invitation of
the New South Wales Irrigators Council (NSWIC) and underwritten by generous
support from Cotton Australia, I was asked to speak at an irrigation conference
in the Australian capital of Canberra. Andrew Gregson is the organization's
chief executive and he said their interest was to have CFWC share its history
and its strategy in the effort to reach consumers with a positive message about
farm water and food production.
Wade (right) preparing to
speak at a mock debate in the historic Old Parliament Building in Canberra. At
left center is Professor Tony Allen, Kings College, London, representing the
international team with Wade and Andrew Curtis from Irrigation New Zealand. The
topic of the lighthearted debate was whether Australians are the best
irrigators in the world. The result of the debate: They’re not.
Australian irrigators
are interested in learning about CFWC's efforts to reach consumers. The highly
capable NSWIC staff, along with their counterparts at Cotton Australia, the
Rice Growers Association and other organizations, effectively engages their
elected representatives and government regulators. They're looking ahead from a
point where CFWC was back in 1989 and they’re asking themselves how to best educate consumers about
the connection between farm water and the food supply.
The NSWIC is an organization
similar to CFWC. It was formed to help represent the needs of farmers who
irrigate land in the Australian state of New South Wales in Eastern Australia.
Farmland in the area receives water from the Murrumbidgee River. The land in
the area is flat and periodic overland flooding covers thousands of square
miles before it returns to the river or percolates into the ground. Rice is one
of the primary crops in the Murray-Darling Basin, along with cotton, citrus,
almonds, winter grain crops and a burgeoning wine industry.
Richard Stott is the
NSWIC chairman and grows cotton, rice and wine grapes. He's a big man with an
equally big smile and sense of humor, the latter of which seems necessary when
facing the natural and man-made challenges in the Murray-Darling Basin.
NSWIC Chairman Richard Stott
Stott has been at the
helm of the organization while the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA)
adopted the MDBA Basin Plan. The Plan was adopted in November 2012 and when
fully enacted would divert 2,750 gigaliters (about 2.2 million acre-feet) at
the basin level and would redirect it to environmental purposes. That equates
to roughly one third of the water currently used by farmers. It is not unlike
current efforts by California's State Water Resources Control Board to enact
regulations that set minimum flow standards in the tributaries to the San Joaquin
River. The difference is that Australian water rights, or licenses, are
generally owned by individual farmers and that public money can be used to purchase
the rights from the farmers. Subsequently, farmers use funds generated by water
rights sales to improve on-farm water use efficiency so they can continue to
grow crops with their remaining supplies. At least that’s how proponents of the Basin
Plan say it will work.
The day after the
conference I drove with Stott four hours west of Canberra to the town of
Griffith to visit farms and to meet the farmers who grow a significant amount
of Australia’s
food and fiber. While differences exist between Australian and California
farmers, there is one common trait among them: the desire to grow something of
value from the natural resources around them. They are farmers to the bone.
Garry Carlon grows
rice and almonds near Benerembah, a small town southwest of Griffith. Not
unlike California farmers, Carlon makes decisions on which crops to grow based
on soil type, climate and the availability of a market. He has a total of 360
acres of almonds ranging from four to eight years old. Also similar to some California
farmers, Carlon's almonds are irrigated with a drip system fed from a small
reservoir on his property. The reservoir serves to regulate his supply from
Murrumbidgee Irrigation District so he can irrigate his trees regularly without
having an on-demand supply managed by the district.
Murrumbidgee River farmer
Garry Carlon
One of his recent
challenges involved a mysteriously declining pump efficiency over the course of
an irrigation season. He determined that fine silt from the reservoir was
making its way through the system, scouring the pumps’ interior surfaces and effectively
reducing their efficiency by about half. Off-season maintenance currently
underway includes rebuilding the pumps and installing a floating intake in the
reservoir to eliminate the problem. Because it is in the Southern hemisphere,
Australian crop production occurs from about October through May.
Another area farm
that has taken advantage of public funding for on-farm irrigation efficiency
improvements in exchange for water returned to the environment belongs to Barry
and Gillian Kirkup. In addition to her role as a business partner and wife of
her husband Barry, Gillian is the financial officer for the Murrumbidgee
Irrigation District. Barry Kirkup
explained that flood irrigation on their farm is highly efficient, thanks to
the improvements they have undertaken including precise laser leveling and the
installation of bankless channels on the ends of the fields. Bankless channels
are shallow waterways approximately 20 feet wide running perpendicular to the
field rows. They allow large volumes of water to push through the field at a
high rate, shortening irrigation cycles and reducing losses to groundwater and
evaporation. The bankless channels replaced hundreds of siphon tubes formerly
used, saving time and eliminating a significant amount of labor.
Bankless channels are
also used on a neighboring farm owned by Dallas and Liz Stott. Dallas is the
nephew of NSWIC Chairman Richard Stott. His wife, Liz, works with him on the
farm and also serves as the communications and policy officer for Australia’s Rice Growers Association.
Liz is a skilled communicator and extremely organized, having put together my
farm tour on about an hour's notice the day before.
Dallas
Stott
Dallas
and Liz Stott
As a younger farm
couple, Dallas and Liz possess the energy and optimistic outlook that the
agriculture industry needs if it hopes to carry-on into the future.
The next morning I
met with Rob Kelly, executive manager of planning at the Murrumbidgee
Irrigation District for a tour of the Barren Box Storage and Wetland (BBSW)
area. Historically known as Barren Box Swamp, the 7,900-acre natural depression
has served as an irrigation drainage and storage facility dating back to the
mid-1920’s.
Murrumbidgee Irrigation was targeted by the Basin Plan to provide more than
16,000 acre-feet of water per year to help meet the overall environmental water
supply goals for the region. That represented a significant amount of water
from the district’s
supply and meant that large swaths of farmland were at risk due of fallowing or
retirement as a result of the environmental water transfer.
Barren
Box Storage and Wetland area
Instead, planners
from the irrigation district proposed an innovative idea: alter the operation
of Barren Box by reducing the wetted area to reduce evaporative losses and at
the same time, create a new, naturally managed wetland area for local wildlife.
The five-year project
received $29 million in redevelopment funds in 2005 from the NSW government and
the result has been a win for both farmers and the environment. Kelly explained
that despite opposition by some environmentalists because it is an engineered
solution, water management activities like this don't have to have a winner and
a loser. It just takes flexibility and a willingness to seek solutions from
both sides in order to make them work.
This brings us back
to the main reason for the trip: Educating Australian farmers and
communications specialists about the successful ways CFWC has engaged the
general public about farm water and food production. They already have the positive stories about Australian farmers
working to be as efficient as possible while growing food and fiber crops for
themselves and others around the world. With a communications partnership
between California, Australian and even New Zealand farmers, the possibilities
are endless for communicating agriculture's message to consumers who depend on
farm water to produce the food they buy for their families.
Food Grows Where
Water Flows
Want more information on the conference? Read this & this!
