A new North-West irrigation scheme is being heralded as a game changer for farms on the scheme.
The taps have been turned on for the $54.4 million Don Irrigation Scheme.
The scheme will provide farmers a guaranteed supply of 5,000 mega-litres a season in the Don, Lillico, Forth, Forthside, Melrose, Lower Barrington, Barrington, Sheffield and West Kentish areas.
Sixth-generation Forth farmer and chair of the Don Irrigator Representative Committee, Mike Badcock says farming before the scheme was a survival game at best.
Mr Badcock says it used to be a gamble whether it would rain sufficiently in any given year to provide enough water for crops, but now farmers can plan crops with confidence and sureity.
The scheme includes 54 km of pipeline, providing coverage for 15,200 hectares of land, with 54 irrigators and 69 property outlets.
Tasmanian Irrigation board chair Kate Vinot says the entity has now built 16 schemes across Tasmania, developed in a unique funding model of co-investment, by Federal and State Governments and irrigators.
