ELDERS chief executive Malcolm Jackman has slammed big cuts to irrigator's entitlements tipped to be in the Murray-Darling Basin draft report due out today.

Mr Jackman said Australia, as an exporting nation with efficient farming practices, had a greater responsibility to feed growing global food demand and should allocate water resources accordingly.

His attack comes as the draft MDB guidleline is due to be released today by the MDB Authority. It is expected to recommend irrigation cuts of 27-37 per cent.

The embattled CEO, whose company has faced a turbulent year, was speaking to more than 100 clients at an Elders function in Hamilton last night.

"They (government) have already said they will announce it after the share market closes... because they’re worried about the impact it will have on the businesses in agriculture," he said.

"As the CEO of Elders you start worrying about what the hell is coming down the pipeline tomorrow."

Mr Jackman said the increased global demand for food in coming years put soft commodity exporting countries like Australia in a grave position of responsibility to lift their food output.

"If we decide the water flows at the mouth of the Murray... are more important than feeding the planet, what will actually happen is that rest of the planet's people will continue to destroy the environment with their inefficient farming methods," he said.

Mr Jackman said a better situation would be for Australia to continue to irrigate so it could export food to the world.

He made further political comments, deriding the role of the rural independents in the federal parliament, saying they would be of no real benefit to wider rural Australia, and also lambasted the rise of the Green vote.

Meanwhile, he defended Elders' financial position, saying its plight had been greatly exaggerated.

However, he conceded a “very tough two years” and that Elders management had “become arrogant”, on the back of its long and successful history and had looked to itself, more than to its customers, for direction.

He said Elders had made other mistakes moving into non-core business areas, such as the forestry industry, which he described as a "complete disaster" due to managed investment schemes.

However, he said the past month had produced some improvement in the company's position and a culture change was underway where clients were being put first.