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Rice the worst water waster
25 May 2005
A CSIRO study found that Australia's 2500 rice farms were found to be 200 times more water intensive than the average industry and to generate four times as much greenhouse gas. A 1kg bag of rice costing $2.50 required 21,000 litres of water to produce and generated 6 1/2 minutes of employment. By comparison, a $2.50 bottle of beer needed 122 litres of water and provided three minutes of employment.
And if rice farmers paid the rate for water that water scientist Peter Cullen says they should be charged - about $1000 per million litres - it would be uneconomic to farm for rice in the Murray-Darling basin.
The Australian, 25/05/05
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