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AGRICULTURAL WATER USE

		Unit	2008-09	2007-08	2006-07
Agricultural businesses
	Irrigating	no.	2 865	2 720	2 935
	Total	no.	12 658	13 084	13 608
Area of agricultural holding
	Irrigated	ha	47 804	63 364	53 268
	Total	ha	93 645 885	93 034 706	96 741 958
Water use
	Irrigation	ML	226 085	284 878	293 186
	Other agricultural uses	ML	92 310	85 026	118 806
	Total water use	ML	318 395	369 904	411 992
Application rate		ML/ha	4.7	4.5	5.5

• WA's agricultural water use fell by 51.5 gigalitres (down 14%) to 318.4 gigalitres in 2008-09. Nationally, agricultural water use rose by 4% or 7,286 gigalitres, the first increase since 2005-06. Agricultural water use remains below 2005-06 levels in all states, particularly NSW (down 56%) and Victoria (down 49%).
• Over one-fifth (23%) of WA's 12,658 agricultural businesses undertook irrigation in 2008-09. However, the area irrigated by these businesses represented less than 1% of the total area of agricultural holdings in the state.
• In 2008-09, the volume of water applied for irrigation decreased by 58,800 megalitres (ML) (21%). However, there was a substantial fall in the area of land irrigated in WA over this period (down 15,600 ha). This decrease resulted in the application rate in WA rising to 4.7 ML/ha, the highest in Australia.

• In 2008-09, the major use of irrigated water in WA was for Pasture, cereal and other crops used for grazing, accounting for 32% of irrigation water applied in the state. The next major uses of water were for Vegetables for human consumption or seed (25%) and Fruit trees, nut trees, plantation and berry fruits (21%).