THE flow of produce from the Bacchus Marsh irrigation district may soon dry up, local growers say.

The system, built in the 1920s, runs at 60 per cent efficiency or less.

In recent years, it has had almost no surface water allocation and bore water is now too salty and short in supply to sustain the district into the future.

Many growers were this year saved only by Southern Rural Water's decision to take 500 megalitres from the Macalister Irrigation District in Gippsland - just over 0.5 per cent of the MID allocation - to give to Bacchus Marsh, which has an overall allocation of only about 6000 megalitres.

The aquifer has dropped six metres in the past 18 months, growers say, and the region also faces urban sprawl issues.

One grower, who did not wish to be named, said the irrigation district would be gone in two years.

"Our distribution infrastructure is at the point where the cement is breaking away, there's heavy losses. Running at 60 per cent efficiency is not good," the grower said.

"There's no doubt (the situation cannot continue), we've got open channels running through town, but who pays (for an upgrade)?"

Grower and Southern Rural Water customer consultative committee member Nick Dellios said the irrigation infrastructure was "90 to 100 years old" and "basically at the end of its life".

Mr Dellios said securing bore water had initially drought-proofed his farm.

"But the bore water is affecting the soils and (fruit) trees, we're having to do things to rectify that," Mr Dellios said.

"In the first year, everything was great, but (we're now) in the third season and the fruit is small - we're compounding the problem I think."

Local grower Frank Ruffo, who bought a farm in Gippsland to fulfill his supply contracts, said government needed to decide what it wanted for the region.

"It (the outlook) is pretty grim at the moment," Mr Ruffo said. "I think recycled water would have to be an option for the district - it's the only one as far as future sustainability is concerned."

Mr Ruffo said water from the Western Treatment Plant should be pumped to Bacchus Marsh.

Mr Dellios said the district had "some of the best soils in Victoria" but an infrastructure upgrade was required if farming was to continue there.

"But there's no room for expansion," he said.