Irrigation increase due to wine boom: report

A new report shows there has been a 30 per cent increase in irrigated farmland in less than a decade in north-west Victoria and south-west New South Wales.

The latest crop report from mapping group Sunrise 21 is due for release today, and assesses the period from 1997 to 2006 in the region from Nyah to the South Australian border.

The report says 21,000 hectares of new horticulture was developed, which is a 29 per cent increase over the period.

Most of that was on the Victorian side of the river, and was triggered by the winegrape boom, the advent of Managed Investment Schemes, water trading and a push by irrigators for more efficiency.

Nuts became the region's second-biggest horticultural crop in terms of area behind grapevines.

Wine and table grape plantings increased significantly, but dried fruit plantings fell by 35 per cent.

The average property size increased from 20 to 27 hectares and despite the growth in area, there were 150 fewer horticultural properties by the end of the period.

Sue Argus from Sunrise 21 says the information will be used by land and water management agencies.

"It's important to quantify these things from a land-and-water, natural-resource-management perspective," she said.

"Unless we can measure these things we really don't know where we are going, it's very difficult to plan into the future."