AAP General News (Australia)
12-21-2010
NSW:Drought figures tempered by floods: Whan
SYDNEY, Dec 21 AAP - What a difference a year has made for NSW farmers.
Twelve months ago they were desperately hoping for some Christmas rain, with more than
80 per cent of the state stricken by drought.
But Christmas 2010 will be green and wet for farmers, with the latest government statistics
showing 100 per cent of the state having "satisfactory" agricultural conditions.
An improvement in the state's southeast agriculture district, south of Queanbeyan,
returned NSW to conditions not seen since 2001.
However, Primary Industries Minister Steve Whan said the good news was tempered by
recent flooding, which had wiped out half a billion dollars worth of winter crops.
Mr Whan declared the Greater Hume Shire in southern NSW the latest natural disaster
area because of flooding, taking the total number of declarations to 42.
"Today's news on drought is something that 12 months ago we would have been jumping
for joy about - unfortunately now it is tempered by the impact that floods have had on
crops," he told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.
"We've seen still very positive news for people who are graziers, so there is a lot
of fodder in the state.
"But obviously the difficult news is for crops, where we've seen half a billion dollars
wiped off the value of (winter) crops, but still more harvested this year than we've seen
in previous drought years."
One silver lining to the recent rains were summer crop conditions, which Mr Whan said
had been "set up" for the months ahead.
"There is very good conditions for summer crop plantings, and we should see far more
planted in the summer than we have in past years," he said.
"Preliminary estimates are for the sowing of 529,595 hectares of summer crops, excluding
rice, which is more than double the estimated 239,652 hectares harvested last season."
AAP ab/wjf/maur
KEYWORD: DROUGHT NSW
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