An independent report has found Commonwealth buybacks in the southern Murray-Darling have forced up water water prices over the past five years.

The ACT Agriculture and Water Department-commissioned report, available here, says the impact of buybacks has been only a fraction of the price increase caused by dry weather.

Consulting firm Aither was brought in to look at the impact of Commonwealth water recovery on prices in the southern Murray-Darling.

Analyst Chris Olszak said the study was designed to “bring a bit of balance” to the debate about the impact of buybacks on water prices.

Irrigators in the southern basin region say water legislation has created a man-made drought.

They argue that removing water from agricultural production artificially constricts water supply and drives up prices.

“If we look over the last five years, we can see that about a quarter of the increase in water allocation prices in the southern Murray-Darling Basin between 2010-11 and 2014-15 was attributed to the Commonwealth environmental water purchases,” Mr Olszak told the ABC.

“Drying climatic conditions [were] the prime driver of those water allocation price increases,” he said, noting the report did not judge whether the buybacks were “a good or bad thing”.

Mr Olszak was asked whether the research gave any weight to irrigators' concerns that the long-running drought was man-made, saying; “There's definitely two sides of the debate”.

“One is that it's clear that drying conditions have been the prime determinant of water allocation prices,” he said.

“But I can also understand the perspective that any increase in allocation prices can have an impact on some irrigators.”