1. Cotton is NOT agriculture’s biggest water user

    Cotton is Only Grown When There's Water Available

    Of the water utilised by agriculture in 2004/05, dairy farming accounted for 19%, livestock and grains 18%, pasture 16%, cotton 15% and sugar 10%.

    Cotton accounts for approximately 15% of the water extracted for irrigation in the Murray-Darling Basin or about 6% of the total river flows. Cotton crops are only grown when there is water available and the amount that cotton irrigators can extract each year is determined by a strict set of rules.

    Proportion Of Irrigation Water Used By Crop

  2. Cotton uses about the same amount of water as other summer crops

    Cotton is very drought and heat-tolerant and does not require excessive amounts of water. In fact, cotton uses less water than many other major crops produced in this country as the table below clearly shows.

    Average Irrigation Requirement (megalitres per hectare)
    Rice12.3
    Lucerne for hay10
    Corn8
    Asparagus8
    Watermelon8
    Processing tomatoes8
    Fruit Trees7.5
    Maize7.15
    Cotton6.3
    Soybeans6
    Sugar cane5
    Pasture for grazing4

    Source: ABS Water Use on Australian Farms 2005-06 and NSW Agriculture Farm Budgets 2006

  3. Cotton is an ideal crop for Australia’s climate

    Australia has an extremely variable climate. In some years water is plentiful and other years suffer from drought. This makes cotton an ideal crop in a climate like Australia’s because it is only planted when there is water available and can be ‘turned off’ in times of drought. For example, the 2007/08 cotton crop was the smallest in 30 years due to a lack of available water.

  4. Australia’s cotton growers are the most efficient in the world

    Australian cotton growers are three times more efficient than the global average and have improved efficiency by 238% since the 1970s. We now produce 7.84 bales/hectare, as compared to 3.3 bales/hectare in the 70s. The industry leads the world in water use efficiency research and technology and is investing $17 million in R&D to improve water efficiency over the next three years through the Cotton Cooperative Research Centre.

  5. Cotton is the lifeblood of many regional communities

    Cotton supports over 50 regional communities in NSW and Queensland, employs 10,000 Australians and supports 4,000 businesses. In NSW, every 270 megalitres of water generates one full time job on an irrigation farm.

  6. Cotton growers pay for water

    Water is a scarce and expensive resource. The costs vary between regions, but are usually made up of two parts: a fixed cost and a usage cost. The fixed cost is to pay for maintenance of public infrastructure such as dams and channels, and gets charged annually, even if there is no water delivered to the irrigator. The usage cost is charged based on the percentage of water that the farmer accesses that year—this depends on availability and usually fluctuates substantially from year to year. In addition, irrigators pay for costs associated with getting the water from a public dam onto their fields including pumping stations, channels, road crossings, recycling and drainage works.

  7. Water goes to the highest value crop

    Water should be ‘spent’ on the crops that deliver the best return per unit of water to the farmer, the community and the national economy. Cotton generally returns more per megalitre than any other summer crop, contributes $1.5 billion a year in export earnings and employs 10,000 Australians. That’s why over 800 Australian farmers choose to grow it.

  8. Australia’s cotton growers don’t waste water

    Water is a precious natural resource and farmers need to make the most out of every drop, particularly during dry times. Water use efficiency in Australian cotton has doubled over the past 25 years and Australia’s cotton growers produce yields three times the world average. Better water monitoring and plant knowledge, improved farming practices and improved irrigation management have contributed to this achievement. While there are still improvements to be made, particularly in reducing evaporation, cotton growers cannot afford to waste water and work very hard to maximise their efficiencies.

  9. The environment gets its water allocation before the cotton industry

    Most cotton growers have what are termed “low security” water licences, which means they only get to access their share of the water once the needs of towns, stock and domestic use and the environment are met. This means that the percentage of water that cotton growers can access varies greatly from year to year.

  10. Cotton growing has not stopped the flow of rivers in the Murray-Darling

    Cotton growers can only access water from the rivers under a strict set of government rules, when it is available. When there’s no water, there’s no cotton. In their ‘natural’ state, the rivers located in the southern half of Australia experience more variable flows than virtually any other rivers in the world. Between 1885 and 1960, history shows the Darling River stopped flowing at Menindee on 48 occasions—well before irrigation existed on the river or its tributaries.