Rice farms in the Murray-Darling Basin 2012-13 to 2014-15

Rice farms in the Murray-Darling Basin presents key farm performance measures for irrigated rice growing farms in the Basin, including data on water trading and use of irrigation technologies, with an emphasis on results from 2012-13 to 2014-15.

ABARES has conducted surveys of irrigation farms in selected industries and regions in the Murray-Darling Basin since 2006-07. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) funded this latest survey.

This report focused on rice growing farms in the southern Murray-Darling Basin, where almost all of Australia's rice is produced.

After 100 per cent closing water allocations in 2012-13, there were falls in allocations in 2013-14 and particularly in 2014-15. Average farm cash incomes in 2014-15 fell by around 28 per cent to around $132 000. The average rate of return was 1.7 per cent, higher than the average for all survey years of 1.3 per cent.

All rice growers used flood irrigation because of the need to apply large volumes of water to rice crops at high delivery rates.

In most survey years, a majority of rice farms did not buy or sell irrigation water. Of those farms that did trade water, there were more sellers than buyers of water. On average, sellers of water recorded higher rates of return on capital than either buyers or those not trading water.