Carrots and Sustainability

The debate on the sustainability has, in Western Australia, moved to carrots. Maggie Lilith, Salinity and Rural Liaison Officer, reports in the magazine �Greener Times� (March 2007) that it takes 325 litres of water to produce $1.00 of carrots. 65% of water used in WA goes to agriculture and horticulture and we are experiencing our worst water shortage in a hundred years. Rain water has dropped by 20% in the last decade. Plus in the last four years our irrigation has increased by 13% to 5.35 GL. Livestock at 136 GL is the largest water user, followed by sugar at 54 GL and then vegetables at 52 GL. In 2005 the WA carrot crop was worth $37.46 million for 58,008 tonne (40 tonnes a hectare). They on average took 134 days to mature using 8403 KL water per hectare. The food/water/sustainability debate is going to be the big issue in the next few years.