Primary production businesses and producer's livelihoods are built around access to water. To instil the confidence needed for making significant financial and personal investments, agricultural water users must know that their access to water is secure and that their share of the available water is certain.

Catchments across the state have statutory water plans and supporting documents that guide management of the use of water to ensure sustainable economic, social and environmental outcomes are achieved. Catchment by catchment plans are available under the water management section of the Department's website. 

There are a number of key general guiding principles that inform AgForce policies on water resources. These include the following:

• Water is a vitally important resource and needs to be managed to secure its environmental, social and economic values
• To sustain access and associated ecosystems, planning and management should avoid risks to the long term sustainability of water resources
• AgForce supports the cost-effective use of objective, scientific information to guide water resource management decisions, including the release of unallocated water
• The water resource planning process in Queensland is supported as it sets up a system of entitlement security, enables tradability and is designed to plan for sustainable management to meet future consumptive and environmental water requirements.
• Where water resources are at risk of over-use, there may be a need to manage demand through the use of targeted regulation, noting the primacy of basic livestock and domestic rights and that planning and management decisions should be transparent, efficient and equitable.