Calls for environmental water entitlements to be sold to drought-affected farmers

Politicians and farmers say water should be diverted to crops to keep herds alive

There are growing calls for the federal and state governments to start selling government-owned environmental water entitlements to farmers to alleviate the drought and to keep livestock alive.

But the proposals would see wetlands and river courses starved of water with potential environmental stress from the drought exacerbated by the diversion of water onto farmland.