Southern New South Wales rice paddocks may be looking lean this summer, but consumers are being assured there will be no repeat of the COVID pandemic shortages on supermarket shelves.<\/p>\n
Low water allocations across the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys have forced growers to slash plantings.<\/p>\n
“In our area [the Murrumbidgee], agronomists are saying they’ve only got a handful of growers, where last year they might’ve had a couple of dozen,” Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia president Peter Herrmann said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Peter Herrmann says planting began in October, with this year’s crop expected to shrink to a third of last season’s. (ABC News: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n
Mr Herrmann, who farms at Muurami near Griffith, said planting began in October and early estimates suggested this year’s rice crop could shrink to a third of last season’s 44,000 hectares, which produced a 620,000-tonne harvest.<\/p>\n
“The area sown to rice varied significantly between valleys depending on access to irrigation water, with some growers reducing plantings by up to 80 per cent compared to last year,” Mr Herrmann said.<\/p>\n
Low storage levels across key NSW dams, inlcuding Hume at 50 per cent, Blowering at 43 per cent, Menindee 81 at per cent and Wyangala 91 at per cent, have kept general security water allocations tight at 20 per cent in the Lachlan, 32 at per cent in the Murrumbidgee and 18 at per cent in the Murray valleys.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Peter Herrmann has planted 45 hectares of long grain rice variety Langi on his farm near Griffith. (ABC News: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n
Growers need more water<\/p>\n
Southern Riverina rice grower Michael Chalmers said tight water allocations forced him to halve his plantings this season on his properties near Wakool.<\/p>\n
With general security allocations in the Murray \u2014 where Mr Chalmers and his wife farm \u2014 sitting at just 18 per cent, he said water security was the key to confidence among growers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Michael and Felicia Chalmers and their sons Lachlan and Sam have had to halve their rice plantings. (ABC News: Supplied)<\/p>\n
“We’ve got enough water for about two-thirds of what we have in, so we’re still exposed and very concerned about allocations and pricing on the temporary water market.”<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Mr Chalmers believes better communication from water authorities could help.<\/p>\n
“At the moment there’s up to a three-week lag between inflows into the dams and allocation updates. That can really affect planting decisions,” he said.<\/p>\n
Last season’s rice crop produced a 620,000 tonne harvest. (ABC News: Cara Jeffery)<\/p>\n
Rice supply secure for now<\/p>\n
New SunRice chair John Bradford, who also farms at Blighty in the Murray Valley, said smaller plantings would not affect supply.<\/p>\n
Mr Bradford said SunRice, Australia’s largest rice processor, was well positioned to meet both domestic and export demand.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
John Bradford has planted 50 hectares of medium grain rice variety Matilda on his Blighty farm in the southern Riverina.\u00a0 (ABC: Supplied)<\/p>\n
“Luckily this is the back of three good years and SunRice is carrying a lot of rice over in storage,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There will be no repeat of COVID when supermarket shelves were stripped bare of rice.”<\/p>\n
When coronavirus hit, Australia shoppers stockpiled rice and it was sold out immediately. (ABC Rural: Cara Jeffery)<\/p>\n
Mr Bradford said it was vital that government policy recognised the connection between water supply and food security.<\/p>\n
“The government has to understand food security. Between toilet paper and rice, they were the first two things to go off the shelf [during the COVID pandemic],” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
John Bradford, who farms at Blighty, says there will not be a shortage of rice on supermarket shelves.\u00a0 (ABC News: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Grower-owned mill feeling the strain<\/p>\n
The grower-owned Nice Rice mill at Jerilderie is being squeezed by the low water allocations, with some of its 30 Riverina suppliers halving their plantings and others sitting the season out.<\/p>\n
Nice Rice chief executive and director Mirza Kozarcanin said limited water meant there would be little carryover rice if water allocations did not improve for growers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mirza Kozarcanin says limited water is leaving the 30-grower cooperative with little carryover rice.\u00a0 (ABC News: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Mr Kozarcanin said Nice Rice was scaling back some industrial and export plans to ensure there was enough supply for the domestic market.<\/p>\n
“We’d love a lot more water to be available and a lot more rice to be grown, because it’s a premium Australian product.”<\/p>\n
Some of Nice Rice mill’s 30 growers are unable to grow any rice due to low water allocations. (ABC Landline: Peter Healy)<\/p>\n
Water drives southern cotton cutbacks<\/p>\n
Across southern NSW, cotton plantings have halved as irrigators continue to make difficult choices about how to use their limited water.<\/p>\n
Southern Valleys Cotton Growers Association chair Sam Ryan, who farms near Murrami in the Murrumbidgee Valley, forecasted there would be 40,000 hectares planted.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sam Ryan says this year’s planting area would be half of last season’s. (ABC News: Nicola Cecccato)<\/p>\n
“Last year, we grew about 80,000 hectares. That was a great year. So to cut back 50 per cent on that, it’s purely water-driven.”<\/p>\n
Mr Ryan said many growers had simplified their operations and were focusing on fewer crops due to a lack of water.<\/p>\n
“I know one grower \u2026 he said their planter is basically doing gentleman hours at the moment, going from previous years of 24 hours a day to nine to five.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cotton plantings across southern NSW will be halved this season. (ABC News: Jessica Schremmer)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southern New South Wales rice paddocks may be looking lean this summer, but consumers are being assured there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,110955,75,153581,48555,153585,106548,153584,6564,75077,153579,153580,153583,153582,128,11814],"class_list":["post-261398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cotton","tag-environment","tag-gwydir","tag-irrigation","tag-john-bradford","tag-lachlan","tag-michael-chalmers","tag-murray","tag-murray-darling-basin","tag-murrumbidgee","tag-namoi","tag-peter-herrmann","tag-ricegrowers-association-of-australia","tag-science","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}