Drought, population decline and on-farm technology are the major factors leading to job losses in the southern Murray-Darling Basin region, a new report suggests.
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority's latest research, released today, has assessed the community and employment impacts between 2000 and 2016.
The report found while there's been a 37 per cent decline in farm sector jobs, only 7 per cent were the result of the Basin Plan, which was introduced in 2012.
The report also found there had been a 13 per cent decline in all employment in the region, but just a quarter of that was the result of the plan.
Murray-Darling Basin Authority chief executive Phillip Glyde said the findings would offer little comfort for communities that had experienced decline in recent years.
But he said these communities would benefit from long-term sustainability when the plan was fully implemented.
"When you think about it across the Basin, we're removing roughly 20 per cent of the water that had previously been used," Mr Glyde said.
How the Murray-Darling Basin plan works
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"Whilst part of that water removal is through being more efficient with it, you are taking away, in the short term, income from the farming community and the communities that support farmers.
"The reason that's being done is we want these industries to survive into the future.
"As climate change and other things begin to impact and as we address the over-allocation of water in the past, this is putting the industry and those communities on a secure footing."
Mr Glyde said the report would help shape the future of the Basin Plan.
That plan regained its long-term certainty last month when the Federal Government and Labor reached an agreement to reinstate bi-partisan support for it.
Mr Glyde said he expected the findings would trigger debate among regional communities and environmental lobby groups.
"Some people will say that we have overestimated the impact, others will say we've underestimated," he said.
"We expect there will be a contest of ideas and that's what the whole idea is about.
"We believe this is pretty good work, it's ground-breaking work, it hasn't been done before."
