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The Jemalong Land and Water Management Plan (JLWMP) was formulated in the 1990s by the Jemalong Irrigation District (JID) community, with direction from the NSW Government. Implementation of the Plan began in 2001, with all landholders in the district undertaking NSW Agricultures Waterwise on the Farm Courses within the first 18 months, and using this knowledge to improve irrigation efficiencies on their farms through the JLWMP.
The benefits of the LWMP include reductions in accessions to the water table, reductions in water logging and salinity and improvements in farm productivity levels. Protection of biodiversity, heritage values and aesthetic enhancement also represent significant benefits.
The JID is an area of approximately 96,000 hectares covering more than 100 properties. Past management practices such as extensive land clearing, inappropriate irrigation and grazing management and the replacement of deep rooted perennials with shallow-rooted annuals have all contributed to the usual problems of high accessions to the water table, poor surface drainage and some localised salinity outbreaks.
The total cost of the LWMP is estimated at $27.2 million. As in other LWMPs across NSW, the bulk of these costs, 75% or approximately $20.6 million, will be borne by individual landholders. The JID community will be responsible for meeting 9% or approximately $2.4 million and the State Government, as the representative of the wider community, will contribute to the costs of strategies producing common, particularly environmental, benefits. Total Government contribution to the Plan is 16%, or approximately $4.2 million. A summary of the total costs and cost sharing arrangements are outlined in the table below.
It has been estimated that if nothing is done to address these problems the value of agricultural yield losses in the JID could be over $50 million over the next thirty years.
The Plan as it now stands is focused on strategies addressing the on-farm options of landforming, farm planning, recycling systems, high volume outlets, soil fertility testing and improving pastures. Regional options include fencing remnant vegetation, planting new trees and the construction of floodway levees and rain rejection storages.
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