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recharge

Improving water use efficiency by reducing groundwater recharge under irrigated pastures

final report

Approximately 65% of water extracted for irrigation in Northern Victoria and over 30% in the NSW Murray Valley is applied to pastures. In 1996, Murray Irrigation Limited (MIL) introduced a Total Farm Water Balance Policy which aimed to limit farm water use to sustainable levels and hence to reduce groundwater recharge to the district watertable. The dairy industry had some concerns with the original limit of 4 Ml per hectare and initiated discussions (more)...

Adopting improved use of current water monitoring technology to manage recharge

Rising watertables are a major threat to the sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Future sustainability will depend on the ability of each irrigation farmer to choose paddock-crop-irrigation management combinations that control impacts on watertables on their farm. There is a perception that the technology already exists to enable farmers to manage water sustainably, and that the problem is one of adoption rather than the development of new technology. However, (more)...