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Program: Community
Project No.: 3.03.05

Community Wellbeing & Cotton Production in the MDB

Judith Stubbs

Sustaining Rural Communities Conference Presentation 2010

Judith Stubbs Final Report

Exploring the Relationship Between Community Resilience & Irrigated Agriculture in the MDB:
Report 4: Social and Economic Impacts of Reduced Irrigation Water August 2010 Large file 1.4 MB

Appendix 1:   Balonne Shire, QLD Case Study
Appendix 2:   Bourke Shire, NSW Case Study
Appendix 3 :  Campaspe Case Study
Appendix 4:   Dalby-Wambo QLD Case Study
Appendix 5:   Griffith, NSW Case Study
Appendix 6:   Mildura Rural City Case Study
Appendix 7:   Moree Plains, NSW Case Study
Appendix 8:   City of Murray Bridge, SA Case Study
Appendix 9:   Comparative Socio-Economic Indicators for Case Study Communities
Appendix 10: Case Study Selection Criteria

Previous Reports from this Project:

Report 1: Exploring the Relationship Between Community Resilience and Irrigated Agriculture in the Murray Darling Basin (MDB)Scoping Paper July 2010 Large file 1.9 MB

Report 2: Understanding Agricultural Employment Large file 2MB

Appendix 1 - Mapping
Appendix 2 - Data sources and methods used
Appendix 3 - Rice
Appendix 4 - Landuse data
Appendix 5 - Employment data
Appendix 6 - Combination of SLAs

Report 3: IrrigatedAgriculture and Socio-Economic Indicators Large file 1.3MB

Appendix 1 - Data source and method
Appendix 2 - Maps Page 1-32 Large file 6MB
Appendix 2 - Maps Page 33-60 Large file 5.1MB

Project Summary:

This project is separated into three staged research strategies. The three stages together are cumulative, building on one another and providing greater insights and understanding as they progress. The objectives of three proposed research strategies are as follows.

Research Strategy No 1
• To quantify the impact of cotton production on employment in the Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) within the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) where cotton was grown according to the 2005-06 ABS Agricultural Census.

Research Strategy No 2
• To quantify the impact of cotton production on community wellbeing/resilience across the MDB, compared with other agricultural uses in 2005-06 and to form conclusions about causal relationships between the various indicators of wellbeing/resilience based on a statistical analysis of empirical data. This will enable the development of a tool that will predict changes in key indicators of wellbeing/resilience when factors related to water policy and climate change are varied over time.

Research Strategy No 3
• To use the results from Research Strategies No 1 and No 2 to identify and quantify the likely social and economic impacts from particular policy changes related to cotton growing, such as water entitlements and licensing in the context other relevant changes (e.g. climate change predictions), on the wellbeing or resilience of irrigated agricultural / cotton producing communities in the MDB.

• To engage communities in cotton producing catchments within the MDB, as well as other key stakeholders and end-users, throughout the study and beyond in order to:

o Share knowledge gained through Research Strategies No 1 and No 2
o Explore findings of the statistical modeling and research arising from Strategies No 1 and No 2 in the context of local experience and knowledge, changes that have occurred since 2005/06, and views from communities on the possible impact of future changes and appropriate responses.
o Identify locally appropriate mitigation strategies to respond to possible adverse impacts.
o Develop an ongoing mechanism and process for engaging communities and other stakeholders in identifying and responding to change as it occurs both proactively and responsively.