On 10 February, ABARE will commence its third, large scale survey of irrigators throughout the Murray-Darling Basin, collecting data to understand how irrigators have fared since the previous survey in 2007-08.

The third survey will collect information on irrigated agricultural production and the financial situation of irrigators, and is exploring some of the issues that confronted irrigators in the 2008-09 financial year.

Consistent with the two earlier surveys, around 900 irrigators will be surveyed across 10 regions in the Basin.

“We will be interested in examining the results of this third survey to see how irrigators have fared financially relative to the previous two years, and to also observe if and how their management practices may have changed from earlier survey periods,” said ABARE's Executive Director, Phillip Glyde.

Results from the previous two surveys conducted in 2006-07 and 2007-08 provided important snapshots of irrigators’ financial situations throughout the Basin.

“Unfortunately many irrigators, particularly in the southern portion of the Basin, again had to manage drought and associated low water allocations in 2008-09,” Mr Glyde said.

“This ongoing survey provides an important follow-up to the previous surveys and will allow year on year comparisons of the performance of irrigation farms. It will allow us to develop a comprehensive, long-term understanding of production, financial performance and the issues for irrigators,” Mr Glyde noted.

“We need accurate information from irrigators so we can understand these challenges, so I strongly encourage irrigators to participate,” Mr Glyde concluded.

All information provided by irrigators remains confidential. ABARE will only release the results from the survey as farm averages for a given region or industry. The survey interviews are conducted on-farm by identified ABARE data collectors.