The Australian Greens today condemned moves by the Rudd Government to shut down the Land and Water Australia (LWA) rural research and development corporation, saying it was more evidence that they were "totally clueless" on natural resource management and sustainable agriculture.

"Land and Water Australia are one of the very few sources of funding for essential research into tackling some of Australia's biggest environmental problems and engaging farmers in managing the health of our soil, water and remnant native vegetation," said Senator Rachel Siewert today.

"Shutting down LWA will cut the legs out from under a whole string of ongoing research projects where LWA is one of the funding partners."

"For a significant amount of this research, extension and technology transfer - including crucial work that focuses on helping farmers manage climate variability, tackling growing problems with environmental weeds, sustainable irrigation practices and managing biodiversity and native vegetation in mixed landscapes - there is no-one else to turn to for funding and support."

"We must retain a focus on the landscape scale and on the importance of wider natural resource management issues, but these issues are not the first priority for industry funded research bodies who are hard pressed to tackle declining productivity growth."

"Ministers Tony Burke and Peter Garrett clearly do not understand the significance of the crucial gaps in our knowledge in sustainable agriculture and natural resource management - for many of the serious problems that the Caring for Our Country program aspires to address there simply isn't the knowledge base or sustainable farming systems available to sustain or remediate threatened landscapes."

"LWA's current work on seasonal forecasting and agricultural productivity in the West Australian wheat-belt is absolutely crucial to the ongoing viability of our regional towns and our food security."

"This is a yet another step backwards for natural resource management in Australia from the Rudd Government. It compounds the errors and oversights of the Caring for Our Country program - which gutted our regional natural resource management plans - and further reduces our scientific capacity to mitigate and adapt to the threats climate change poses to our environment and our way of life in our hour of need."

"With all the Rudd Government rhetoric about evidence-based policy, Burke & Garrett should be backing science, not slashing it," concluded Senator Siewert.

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