The federal government has announced an extra A$350 million to help struggling farmers through what's believed to be the worst drought on record.
But Professor Peter Cullen, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists who sits on the federal government's National Water Commission, says it was time to stop "drip feeding" producers to keep them on unviable land.
"Keeping them there maximises their misery and maximises the land degradation, which is what a lot of our current strategy seems to be doing," he said.
In the current drought, the government's uncapped relief program has already shelled out $1.25 billion on income support and interest rate subsidies for around 53,000 farming families since 2001.
Professor Cullen, who has been critical of drought subsidies in the past, said at least some of money announced today should be diverted to exit payments to help farmers leave land which can no longer sustain agriculture.
He was reluctant to single out particular areas but said there were obviously marginal parts of western NSW, western Victoria and South Australia where land was carved up into unsustainably small soldier settlement blocks after World War I.
"In those marginal areas, those places that have been on drought relief for at least a decade, I think we should start to face the reality," Professor Cullen said.
"Keeping those people there is not a good strategy for them or the countryside and we need to find a way of using those funds to help some of them off the land."
But Professor Cullen doesn’t believe the land should just be abandoned.
"There will be a need to keep some people on that land to look after weeds and fire and ferals, but we can't afford to have too many of them with too much stock trying to make a living," he said.
"If we can find some way of measuring those environmental services, then paying for them is valid.
"The question is how can we be sure we're getting the environmental services we want rather than just providing a permanent stream of funds that the rest of us don't get when our businesses go broke?"