To sell water or not to sell water to the government: Exploring the question faced by Riverland irrigators

To achieve a more sustainable balance of water in the Murray Darling Basin, the Federal Australian Government has committed billions of dollars over ten years to buy back existing water entitlements from willing irrigators. This study provides insights into factors associated with willingness to sell water to the Government using 2008-09 irrigator surveys in South Australia’s Riverland (n = 324). Ordered probit analysis was used to investigate willingness to participate in selling water and how much of their entitlement they were willing to sell. The factors influencing participation and the volume regressions are relatively similar, and suggest that commercial farmers, or farmers with larger farms (but lower water entitlements); those who are close to retirement or are looking to leave farming (but express less desire to hand the farm down to their successor) are those that are thinking of selling water, and selling more of their water.