Travelling through the Middle East has reinforced how valuable water is when you don't have it. To maximise water use efficiency, both the water providers and users in Israel have put systems in place to reduce any losses; something Australia is still struggling to achieve.
History has shown the prosperity irrigation brings can be great but it can come with a price paid in salt. The irrigation systems and farming practises we put in place now and into the future will have the biggest influence on how much salt ends up in our catchments and how much water will reside within them. Being able to produce crops under saline conditions is important in reclaiming soils lost to salinity and taking pressure off our fresh water supplies. In Australia, we need to address this now while water reform is still on the agenda. I have no doubt good environmental, social and commercial outcomes can be achieved through technologies, techniques and genetics I have seen. Utilising all three could preserve enough water to sustain all for many years to come in the Murray Darling Basin. The failure to act in the past has increased the financial burden to bring anything to reality. If we value the food we produce and the environment in which it grows then support from all sides will be required. My report on irrigation with saline water can be found at http://www.nuffieldinternational.org/reports/report.php
Thank you to the board of Nuffield, Horticulture Australia, The Australian Processing Tomato Growers and my family for allowing me to travel on such an adventure.
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