Geoff Kuehne

Water Trade Alternatives in the Face of Climate Change

Purpose – Prolonged drought and climate change uncertainty have created an urgent need to re-distribute water away from irrigators and back to environmental flows. Previous approaches to achieve this objective have had mixed results. The current approach focuses on purchasing water from irrigators to bolster river flows for ecosystem health. However, governments are purchasing entitlements, not allocations, which do not provide large amounts of water for the money that is spent. This paper aims to review the policies and events that have driven this process. Design/methodology/approach – Following a the review of the policies and events, the paper identifies how the regulatory/market-based approaches have resulted in a status quo or path dependent situation, to the detriment of achieving sustainable water use. Findings – Previous approaches have so far simply maintained path dependency, i.e. the consumptive pool at more or less existing levels. Government intervention to purchase entitlements from irrigators for the environment through water markets is meant to break the status quo, but questions whether this can be achieved from a solitary focus on entitlement recovery. Practical implications – It is suggested that both historical approaches offer less reform value, and that appropriate market intervention is warranted. However, entitlement water purchasing alone may limit provision of wet water to key environmental sites during critical periods and perpetuate a continuation of the path dependency arrangements. Originality/value – A suggested expansion of the water-purchasing programme that utilises allocation based products to meet adaptive environmental flow strategies is provided. Such an approach may offer a more suitable framework for dealing with the uncertain outcomes of climate change and ecosystem needs.

A new framework to analyse workforce contribution to Australian cotton farm adaptability

Farmers face many challenges, including climate variability, that require continual adaptation. However, studies of farm adaptation have paid limited attention to the farm workforce, despite changes in farm workforce organisation (i.e. the number, type and forms of employment on farm) being a significant feature of agricultural change globally. To effectively support farmers’ adaptation, it is important to understand farmers’ workforce strategies (i.e. how farm workforce organisation supports the needs and priorities of the farm), how workforce choices are made and the implications for adaptation. This paper progresses a framework for analysing farm adaptability, including the farm workforce. Bringing together theories of livelihoods analysis and strategic human resource management, the farm workforce strategies of 16 case study farms in the Australian cotton production sector are analysed. Cotton production is exposed to major resource constraints, such as irrigation water. We interviewed farmers and collected data on farm business performance, workforce organisation choices, human resource management practices and employees’ experiences of work. We integrated data to characterise farm workforce decision-making and the relationship between workforce strategies and farm adaptability for each farm. A cross-case analysis explored differences between farms. A diversity of workforce strategies was found, involving combinations of workforce options, defined as ‘core’, ‘contract’ and ‘casual’ workers at different levels of skills and experience. Farm workforce strategies were found to influence and be influenced by sources of financial capital, irrigation water availability/holdings, farm remoteness, new farm infrastructure and human resource management practices. The farm workforce was a response option to provide production flexibility, yet high adaptability was associated with some negative consequences for managers and employees. We show for the first time the influence of farm workforce organisation dynamics in adaptation and negative consequences of high farm adaptability. ‘Factoring-in’ the farm workforce in sustainable development studies should therefore be a priority.

Eliciting the Decision Influences of Stressed Farmers

This study aims to elicit the influences on farmers decision-making, especially when those decisions result in substantial change such as whether they will participate in the government’s irrigation modernisation program or selling their water outright and leaving the irrigation industry. The study group of northern Victorian irrigation farmers are experiencing profound change because their industry and their region is in decline from a prolonged drought, low commodity prices and uncertainty from far reaching government water reforms. Qualitative responses to a mail-out survey were analysed using the text analysis tool, Leximancer. The program automatically uncovered a set of influences on farmers’ decision-making that became more easily understood when examined using Leximancers’ visual conceptual map.

Chapter 6Non-profit-maximising Values And AttitudesInfluencing Irrigators’ Management ResponseTo New Policy Instruments

Undertaking effective and timely water reform in Australia is becoming more and more urgent to reverse increasingly apparent environmental damage and to achieve a sustainable irrigation industry. With farmers being Australia’s largest users of water, the success of any reform depends on their involvement. It has therefore become much more important to understand all of the infl uences affecting the behaviour of farmers. With an ever more urgent need for action, it is now no longer acceptable to rely solely on an assumption of profi t-maximising behaviour when devising programs and policies requiring their participation. The research reported in this chapter identifi es and examines the non-profi t-maximising infl uences on farmers’ behaviour and shows how this insight can be used to more effectively tailor policies and programs so that they are more likely to achieve the desired result – which is, in this case, a more sustainable irrigation industry.

The drought, the irrigators, and their photographs: images from the inside

This paper describes a photo-elicitation study conducted with irrigators in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin during a time of severe drought. This method was chosen because of its ability to elicit the expression of more deeply felt beliefs and values than interviews by themselves. Using visual methods combined with personal interviews, the aim of the study was to uncover the influences on irrigators’ decision-making and their expectations for the future. The analysis of the interview transcripts in conjunction with the analysis of the photographs shows that irrigators have become dispirited and often no longer see a future for themselves in the industry. It was also evident that non-profit-maximising values, such as lifestyle and the prospect of family succession, are still powerful influences on irrigators’ behaviour, even during a time of such severe financial distress. This study suggests that the programs and policies aimed at assisting irrigators, even during this time when financial issues could have been assumed to have been their most pressing concern, could be better designed so that they provide a more compatible match with irrigators’ values and attitudes. This would potentially lead to less social, environmental and economic distress for the individuals and communities of the irrigation regions.

Purchasing Water to Create Sustainable Systems: Where Does this Leave the Regulatory Approach?

Prolonged drought and climate change uncertainty has made a sustainable balance between uses of water much more urgent. Previous strategies have revolved around regulatory approaches to reduce the consumptive pool, and leave more water in the rivers for the environment. These approaches have had limited success. Increased emphasis is now placed on purchasing entitlements from irrigators for environmental water. This paper reviews the events and policies which have driven this process and identifies what role the regulatory approach is now expected to play in achieving sustainable water uses. We suggest that the regulatory approach suffers as a result of a cycle of ‘decision deferment’ and consequently offers diminishing value. However, the water purchasing plan may equally limit the likelihood of ensuring adequate wet water to protect key environmental sites during critical periods. A suggested expansion of the water purchasing programme is therefore provided.

The Wisdom of Farm Advisors: Knowing Who and Knowing Why

One of the most profound changes to the delivery of agricultural extension services over recent decades in Australia, and in many other places in the world, has been the decline in public extension and increased reliance on private farm advisors. While the importance of advisory support in facilitating adoption of agricultural innovations has been clearly demonstrated in many studies, few studies have explored the farmer-advisor relationship from the perspective of knowledge exchange. This paper uses the role that farm advisors play in facilitating farmers’ adoption of complex agricultural technologies as a case example for understanding the different types of knowledge involved. Face-to-face interviews were carried out with thirty farmers from across the South Eastern Australian broad-acre cropping regions who used advisors. We developed a model combining the knowledge components and the DIKW hierarchy models to make the value that agronomists provide to farmers in the form of wisdom more understandable. The proposed model is a way to understand how the different levels of the hierarchy are useful, how those interacting with the different levels of the hierarchy can benefit from others, or be of benefit to others. It brings the DIKW hierarchy to life, adding meaning and usefulness to the conceptualisation. We found that farmer see an advisor’s role in facilitating the adoption of complex agricultural technologies, not so much to learn all about the technology themselves but rather to use their know-why and know-who (both are components of wisdom) to help farmers gain know-how for themselves.

The Key Social Processes Sustaining the Farmer/Adviser Relationship

This paper sets out to describe and analyse the formation and maintenance of the farmer-adviser relationship from the perspective of the farmer in an Australian grains industry context. It is based on 30 in-depth interviews with farmers about their use of agronomists. The findings are that a farmer’s commitment to their adviser will remain strong if they have; frequent meaningful interaction over a long period of time, high perceptions of equity and value, trust and confidence, and an emotional connection. The farmer’s commitment was also influenced by levels of satisfaction with the service, previous investment in building the relationship, and whether there are advisory alternatives. With increased privatisation of agricultural extension in Australia and policy interest in stimulating private-sector farm advisers to play a greater role in the agricultural RDE and agricultural policy-makers and education providers in increasing demand for advisory services from farmers and in targeting farm-adviser training.

The Intersecting Interests of Holidaying Backpackers and Farmers at Work

A reliable workforce remains key for Australia’s agricultural future and using overseas workers remains a successful and favoured strategy for some farmers. Various sectors of Australian agriculture have a growing reliance on overseas staff to provide labour when local staff are unavailable, unwilling or perceived as unsuitable for the work. We investigated the costs and benefits to dairy farm businesses for those employing overseas staff, and those employing local staff. To do this we interviewed thirty dairy farmers from four regions in South-eastern Australia about the structure of their workforce and the impacts they experienced from workforce turnover. Drawing from the analysed interviews, we formed four groups of dairy farm businesses according to whether they had high or low milk production, and whether they employed overseas workers or not. We found that employment strategies were influenced by the farmer’s preparedness to train inexperienced overseas workers compared to their willingness to deal with issues presented by choosing local staff. Agricultural policymakers will need to focus more on how the chosen mix of overseas and local staff impact employees and farmers, rather than assume that any one strategy is better than another.

Farmers’ Varying Economic, Environmental and Social Values and Attitudes as Barriers to Water Reform

This paper explores how the importance that farmers place on the dimensions of land, water, profit, family, community, and lifestyle affects their decision-making in response to the current generation of Australian water policies. Using factor analysis we identify and describe three value and attitude constructs: Succession, Caretaking, and Commerce and show how these can help to explain farmers’ decision-making. These value-constructs might help when designing and communicating new environmental policies so that farmers’ management responses will be more in line with policy expectations and thereby potentially reduce unwanted environmental, social and economic impacts of policies designed to address environmental and climate change issues.