Federal money to drench irrigators
The Federal Government has put up $100 million for the fourth round of the On-Farm Irrigation Efficiency Program.
The project provides vital help to farmers left high and dry around the country, giving out grants for irrigation infrastructure projects such as pipelines, drainage, drip systems and pumps.
This round of grants is open to irrigators around the Murray-Darling Basin, the connected system includes South Australia, parts of Victoria and New South Wales.
South Australia received over $51 million in funding over previous rounds. Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment and Urban Water, Amanda Rishworth says despite being more efficient in their water use than other states, irrigators in SA can most certainly apply.
Ms Rishworth says: “What we want to do is ensure that we help farmers become efficient irrigators and return water to the River Murray. But we've seen, in all three rounds, that South Australia has had money delivered to them to improve their irrigation and I expect that in Round Four we'll continue to see work being done.”
The Federal On-Farm Irrigation Efficiency Program Round Four is now open for applications from all states, closing on October 14.