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The introduction of water policy according to a study by Edwards and Cheers (2007) limits the water rights of the farmers in Kerang immensely contributing to the deteriorating agricultural prospects in this region. The impacts of water trading as a result of the introduction of water policy need no overemphasis. A large number of farmers have no freedom of water use. The policy insists on providing water to farmers on full recovery of the costs. Moreover, the amount of the water abstracted from the river systems is under restrictions. The contents of this policy are likely to have direct impacts on water pricing and availability, hence upsetting irrigation dependent agricultural businesses in and out of Kerang. Trading rights in water is likely to cause multiple effects of drought situations as many will take advantage of drought situations to exploit the already financially susceptible farmers. Reduction of irrigation water means loss of local farms and productivity leading to dwindling wealth creation in the region the result is an increasingly vulnerable community in holding its values and ability to engage in long term economically viable activities.
Fewer residents engaging in agricultural farming means less spending in food, clothing, education and other essential services; this has a direct effect of employment creation in the area. Once a family loses water right the next option is to sell their piece of land to individuals from outside of Kerang.These individuals have little interest and experience in farming leading to increased trucks of land not put to good agricultural use threatening the food security situation. The water trading is likely to lead to inequality in the region as those with sufficient purchasing power will drive the financially weak farmers out of farming business by acquiring their water rights and farm lands leading to skewed development progress in the region. The small scale farmers are the potential victims of this water policy as it favors commercial farming.
There has been a trend in population decline in Kerang though it began much earlier before this water policy was introduced; however, water trading cannot be counted out of this pattern of population decrease. According to a study conducted by Chapman and Grenville ( 2002) Australia’s population increased by six percent between 1991-1996.Though there was decline in population in towns like Mount Isa, Wee Waa, Bourke and Wilcannia. The towns located in white-sheep zones like Swan Hill, Griffith and Emerald experienced population growth in the same period. Emerald population growth was attributed to coal mining activities that took place in the mid 1990s. Those towns in the pastoral dominated regions registered a decline in population. Towns like Mount Isa, Swan Hill and Griffith are found in areas that changed to crop and beef production as a gap measure to declining wool pricing in 1990s. On one hand, Bourke and Wilcannia are those towns with limited land use and were involved in wool production due to lack of an alternative venture during the same period. Wee Waa and Griiffith depend majorly on agriculture that employs most of its populace.Whilst Emerald and Mount Isa apart from agriculture, mining industry and many other varied industrial base.This has led to population changes in various towns because of limited or varied reliance in certain sectors.
The residents of Kerang spend a lot of their time in the farms and businesses hence take no time out to be with their families. This situation has lead to abandonment of social groups and organizations causing systematic loss of community social fabric and subsequent population decrease. The cases of drought and economic hardship in Kerang resulted in water trading. Other factors that have lead to sales of water rights in this region are increased commodity prices and profits from the sales of water. The management of water resources by organizations like Murray–Darling Basin Authority through involvement of communities creates a brighter future in terms of sustainable agriculture by conserving the natural resources like environment by imparting knowledge to the locals who practice farming. The authority forms key federal government policy on conservation of water resources for future generations. The Basin plans are key to the future agricultural prospects of the communities. The state’s program to combat salinity is meant to create and to protect the existing agricultural land for continued crop production. The changes in agricultural structure through construction of dams and irrigation drainage have contributed to the levels and patterns of employment, opportunities in education, as well as extent of accessibility to services in rural areas in Kerang cumulatively resulting in the current shape of the society. The impacts of the changes that have been witnessed are quite diverse in many local contexts in Australia. The over-reliance in agriculture has lead to some regions and towns diversifying their agricultural activities while those regions with inadequate economic might to respond to high commodity prices have been edged out of the agricultural production. The rural communities depend a lot on incomes from wool, beef, and sheep meat production. Many towns, especially those that have heavily relied on agriculture have bore the brunt of amalgamation of farms in the quest to remain afloat and achieve productivity coupled with mechanization of agricultural production that has seen low demand for farm inputs and farm labor creating unemployment among the young people. Some sectors of the local economy have cut down employment levels and this is attributed to state and federal policies that are rationalist in nature.
The land use patterns have changed due to the climatic variations, commodity costs and input costs have had economic effects on the agricultural production in large farms in Australia. Sheep number went down by a third from the initial 173 million. On the other hand, the beef cattle numbers rose by five percent over the same period. This trend in the rise of crop and cattle production and the fall of sheep numbers was attributed to competitive prices in crop harvest and beef yield as opposed to wool products. The challenges in agriculture have impacted differently in regions across Australia because of suitability of agricultural land to support crop farming.Wheat-sheep areas have favorable climatic and topographical benefit compared to other regions IN Australia. High rainfall strips along the coasts as well as the table lands are viewed as more appropriate for grazing and legume production due to high rainfall, humidity and sharp topography. The arid, semi-arid and the northern tropical areas in Australia support pastoral activities as very few land barely sustain crop farming resulting in mass exodus from sheep keeping to cattle rearing in 1990s. The wheat-sheep areas enjoy vast land use. This has witnessed cattle and crop production overtake wool production partly because of the better prices in beef and crop outputs. Due to the high productivity in high rainfall zones the land use practices have been very minimal in these regions.
The magnitude of the impacts across regions has been influenced by the agricultural sector’s ability to adjust to differences in commodity prices in the 1990s and the level of reliance in agriculture compared to other sectors of the economy by towns in those regions.
Reference List
Champman, L and Greenville, J. Profiling rural Australia, Vol.9 No. 2007.
Edwards, J. and Cheers, B. The impact of trading of water out of districts: A case study of the kerang region in Victoria, Industry partner Report No.5 2007.
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