THE National Irrigators' Council has called for water usage to be measured and licensed.

That includes all water used in farm dams, forestry plantations and to supply stock and domestic users.

"Irrigators are firmly of the view that all water use should be accounted for and adhere to the principle that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it," NIC chief executive Danny O'Brien said.

"That's why we believe all use should be brought into the entitlements system, as even minor use can add up."

But peak farmer groups in Victorian and NSW have opposed the NIC's call, arguing it is impractical and prohibitively expensive to implement.

NSW Farmers' Association water spokesman John Ward said NIC was trying to eat away at stock and domestic water use, which was a ridiculously small component of basin diversions.

"Here in the Lower Murrumbidgee, we have about 270,000 megalitres of entitlement, with stock and domestic making up about 2700 megalitres," Mr Ward said.

"The NIC should get back to the main game of dealing with the Murray Darling Basin plan and not using stock and domestic as a bargaining chip."

Mr Ward said the association was also opposed to demanding plantations buy water entitlements to offset the water they captured in the basin's upper catchments.

"We have to be very careful we don't start telling people what they can and can't grow on their land."

Victorian Farmers' Federation water council chairman Richard Anderson said there was merit in regulating the construction of stock and domestic dams in stressed catchments.

"But it should be done through the planning process, not by demanding they (landholders) go out and buy entitlement for what they've already been using," Mr Anderson said.

However, the NIC argues that under the proposed MDB plan, they face having to wear the full impact of cuts to diversions and interceptions.

The MDB Authority developing the plan has previously proposed applying cuts to all water use in the basin, including the volume intercepted by plantations and farm dams, to revive environmental flows.

Then VFF and NSW Farmers have argued basin state governments have already moved to regulate the development of farm dams.

But Mr O'Brien said any government-imposed reductions in water availability should be applied equally to all water use, including interception, not just to users such as irrigators accessing water through river diversions.