Water woes from prolonged buyback talks tempts top grower to cash in and head to the coast

This year, Robert and April Andreazza grew enough rice on their southern New South Wales farm to provide a meal for 22 million people.

Despite their success as food producers, the couple are unsure if farming will be in their future.

The daily drain of farming under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and further water buybacks weighs heavily on their minds.

“I don’t know the future, I don’t trust the government,” Mr Andreazza said.

“They promise you things and then they renege, and it doesn’t worry them at all. They can just do it and not bat an eyelid.

“This water business, I believe, is a political thing. I don’t think [politicians] have given any thought to the ramifications of it.”

But Mr Andreazza has given plenty of thought to it, and just how much impact it would have beyond their farm gate.

“We are sitting on three properties here and my wife and I grew enough rice last year that 22 million people had a meal from the amount we grew ourselves. That’s nearly the population of Australia,” he said.

SunRice considers a serve of uncooked medium white rice to be 70 grams (1/3 metric cup uncooked rice) to make about 175g of cooked rice.

“We might just be a family on the farm, but there’s so many other people employed.”

“SunRice [who buys and markets their rice] employs 650 people [in the Riverina].”

Their passion and performance growing rice has seen the Andreazza’s recognised as the best in the business and named SunRice Growers of the Year.

Debilitating and demoralising

Mr Andreazza said his concerns about the future were shared by many fellow farmers.

“I was in the line-up [of trucks at the grain receival depot] during wheat harvest, and a lot of them were walking around. You can see they’re deflated,” he said.

“We have a massive investment here in land and water, but it’s just debilitating and demoralising.”

Legislated in 2012, the $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan aims to have the equivalent of 3,200GL of water stay in the system for the environment, an original Bridging the Gap target of 2,750GL and an additional 450GL of water.

In 2015, the Coalition government limited the amount of water that could be recovered via buybacks in a bid to protect communities dependent on irrigation.

However, federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has moved to bring back water buybacks this year and allow for voluntary water purchases, not just infrastructure projects, to recover the additional 450GL for the environment.

Ms Plibersek has defended her push for more water buybacks.

“We can’t stand by and allow our threatened species, our rivers, our wetlands, and the three million people who rely on this river system for their drinking water to be unprepared for the next dry period,” Ms Plibersek told the ABC last month.

Mr Andreazza said most farmers had already adopted more efficient layouts for irrigating paddocks, improved water delivery methods and modernised metering. 

“We’re the most efficient rice growers in the world. All our water is gravity-fed, so there’s no energy costs.”

“It’s a no-brainer system. It’s an industry that’s up and going, but it’s just going to shrink.”

Cash in, coast calling

Despite being proud food producers and the SunRice Growers of the Year, it’s tempting for the Andreazzas to cash in their assets and move.

“My wife is from the coast and she’s mentioned it more than once, especially as we get older,” Mr Andreazza said.

“I’m in my early 50s and the years go by really quickly, and I tell you what, it’s very tempting sometimes.”

The couple have witnessed the landscape change as neighbours sold properties and permanent water entitlements to the government under previous environmental water buybacks.

Mr Andreazza said many of the new owners operated them as dry farms and bought water on temporary markets when opportunity afforded.

Water buybacks wearing

Mr Andreazza does not shy away from voicing his opinion. He recently attended a water rally at Griffith, and he was among a crowd of 5,000 that fronted the Murray Darling Basin Authority when the draft plan was released more than a decade ago.

He said it was wearing when the message kept falling on deaf ears.

“You go to the meeting and it’s the same thing all the time,” he said.

“You could see that they [politicians] were just not listening,” he said.

“They wear you down and you get to a point of ‘what for’, as they just totally tune out to what’s going on.