• 
• 
• Australian rice growers are continually improving their water use efficiency
• Water restrictions in urban Australia have nothing to do with rice farms
• Rice is a valuable crop to Australia
• Rice varieties grown in Australia are not the same as those grown in Asia
• Water used on rice is not the same as drinking water
• Rice farms promote biodiversity
• Rice is not the agricultural product which uses the most water
• If there’s no water, there’s no rice crop
• Rice growers are committed to the environment
• 
• 

Rice is NOT the agricultural product which uses the most water

Some people argue that we shouldn’t grow rice in Australia because it uses too much water. However statistics show, from growing to preparation, rice requires less water than many other foods. ABS Water Account Australia 2000-01 shows that dairy, cotton, livestock and pasture grains all use more water in Australia than rice.

Water supply and use, Australia—2000–01

	Self extracted (b)	Mains water (c)	Reuse water (d)	in-stream (e)	Water consumption (a)
Industry	ML	ML	ML	ML	ML
Agriculture
Livestock, pasture, grains & other	3 471 109	1 905 485	191 879	—	5 568 474
Dairy farming	1 210 701	1 571 863	51 855	—	2 834 418
Vegetables	422 008	117 033	16 670	—	555 711
Sugar	555 668	753 129	1 875	—	1 310 671
Fruit	491 250	296 557	14 825	—	802 632
Grapes	345 371	364 190	19 576	—	729 137
Cotton	2 502 002	404 090	2 085	—	2 908 178
Rice	133 986	1 692 674	124 501	—	1 951 160
Total	9 132 095	7 105 022	423 264	—	16 660 381
Source: ABS Water Account Australia 2000-01

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) data calculating the virtual water content of crop and livestock products highlights this fact. The virtual water content of husked rice grown in Australia is 1327 m³/ton. This is significantly lower than other crops grown in Australia such as soybeans (2106 m³/ton) or wheat (1588 m³/ton) and other agricultural products in Australia such as beef (17112 m³/ton) and pork (5909 m³/ton) .

And when compared internationally, the Australian rice industry performs better than all the other major rice producing countries. Remember the virtual water content for Australian husked rice is 1327 m³/ton, with the world average being 2975 m³/ton. So those countries that people believe are better suited to growing rice, like China (1716 m³/ton), Japan (1586 m³/ton) and Indonesia (2793 m³/ton) all use more water to produce their crops.

A study by international water experts Arjen Hoekstra and A. K. Chapagain published in January 2007, in the journal titled Water Resources Management found it takes an estimated 8000 litres of water to produce a single pair of leather shoes, 16,000 litres for a kg of steak, 185 litres for a bag of potato chips and 70 litres for an apple.

1. The virtual water content a product is the volume of water used to produce the product, measured at the place where the product was actually produced.

2. UNESCO-IHE, Chapagain, A.K and Hoekstra, A.Y. Water footprints of nations. November 2004.

	USA	China	India	Russia	Indonesia	Australia	Brazil	Japan	Mexico	Italy	Netherlands	World average
Rice (paddy)	1275	1321	2850	2401	2150	1022	3082	1221	2182	1679		2291
Rice (husk)	1656	1716	3702	3118	2793	1327	4003	1586	2834	2180		2975
Rice (broken)	1903	1972	4254	3584	3209	1525	4600	1822	3257	2506		3419
Wheat	849	690	1654	2375		1588	1616	734	1066	2421	619	1334
Maize	489	801	1937	1397	1285	744	1180	1493	1744	530	408	909
Soybeans	1869	2617	4124	3933	2030	2106	1076	2326	3177	1506		1789
Sugar cane	103	117	159		164	141	155	120	171			175
Cotton seed	2535	1419	8264		4453	1887	2777		2127			3644
Cotton lint	5733	3210	18694		10072	4268	6281		4812			8242
Barley	702	848	1966	2359		1425	1373	697	2120	1822	718	1388
Sorghum	782	863	4053	2382		1081	1609		1212	582		2853
Coconuts		749	2255		2071		1590		1954			2545
Millet	2143	1863	3269	2892		1951		3100	4534			4596
Coffee (green)	4864	6290	12180		17665		13972		28119			17373
Coffee (roasted)	5790	7488	14500		21030		16633		33475			22682
Tea (made)		11110	7002	3002	9474		6592	4940				9205
Beef	13193	12560	16482	21028	14818	17112	16961	11019	37762	21167	11681	15497
Pork	3946	2211	4397	6947	3938	5909	4818	4962	6559	6377	3790	4856
Goat meat	3082	3994	5187	5290	4543	3839	4175	2560	10252	4180	2791	4043
Sheep meat	5977	5202	6692	7621	5956	6947	6267	3571	16878	7572	5298	6143
Chicken meat	2389	3652	7736	5763	5549	2914	3913	2977	5013	2198	2222	3918
Source: UNESCO-IHE, Chapagain, A.K and Hoekstra, A.Y. Water footprints of nations. November 2004.

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