Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

APPENDIX - AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES

Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production
Water Consumption and water source
Reuse Water and irrigated land

As mentioned in the agriculture section of this publication, there are two different views of agriculture: an industry view and an activity view. This appendix examines the consumption of water by agricultural activities in Australia, as opposed to the industry view presented in the main text.

 
MAIN FINDINGS
 

• The gross value of irrigated agricultural production was $11.5 billion in 2009–10, a slight decrease from $12.0 billion in 2008–09. (Note: Gross value is not a proxy for the highest value water use).
• Water consumption by all agricultural activities was 7,359 GL in 2009–10, a 3% decrease from 2008–09 when it was 7,589 GL.
• All agricultural activities accounted for 55% of total Australian water consumption in 2009–10, which is slightly more than 2008–09, when they accounted for 54%.
• Dairy cattle grazing (868 GL or 12%) and cotton growing (852 GL or 12%) were the agricultural activities with the highest water consumption in 2009–10, followed by sugar cane (756 GL or 10%), fruit and nuts (655 GL or 9%) and cereal crops for grain or seed growing (568 GL or 8%).
• The area of irrigated agricultural land in 2009–10 was 1.84 million hectares, a 5% increase from 2008–09 when it was 1.76 million.

 
 Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production
 
Estimating the value of agricultural production resulting from irrigation is difficult. This is because water consumed by crops comes from a variety of sources. In particular, rainwater, which is not included in the Water Account Australia, is usually a component of the water consumed by irrigated crops, and the timing and location of rainfalls affect the amount of irrigation water required. Other factors such as evaporation also affect irrigation water requirements. These factors contribute to regional and temporal variations in the consumption of water for irrigation.
 
In addition, water is not the only input to agricultural production from irrigated land. Land, fertiliser, labour, machinery and other inputs are also used. Separating the contribution these factors make to total production is practically impossible with current data. Therefore, the estimates of the Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production (GVIAP) presented below attribute all of the gross value of production from irrigated land to irrigated agricultural production. GVIAP should not be used as a proxy for determining the highest value water uses.
 
GVIAP estimates for 2009–10 were derived from the ABS Agricultural Resource Management Survey, which collected information including area and production of crops, livestock numbers and products, area of crops/pastures irrigated and volume of water applied. The ABS also collects and publishes data on the value of agricultural commodities produced (see Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced, Australia, 2009–10 (ABS cat no. 7503.0). Further details on the methods used to derive the estimates are presented in the Explanatory Notes of the publication Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production, 2009–10 (ABS cat. no. 4610.0.55.008) and in the information paper Methods of estimating the Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production (ABS cat. no. 4610.0.55.006).
 
The total gross value of irrigated agricultural production in 2009–10 was $11.5 billion compared to $12.0 billion in 2008–09, a 4% decrease (see table below). Vegetables were the largest contributor to the value ($2,385 million or 21%), followed by fruit and nuts ($2,242 million or 20%) and dairy production ($1,826 million or 16%).
 
The greatest decreases in GVIAP from 2008–09 to 2009–10 occurred in South Australia, from $1,635 million to $1,360 million (a 17% decrease) and Western Australia, from $846 million to $758 million (a 10% decrease).
 
Between 2008–09 and 2009–10 there were significant reductions in the GVIAP of dairy production (from $2,274 million to $1,826 million), vegetables (from $2,625 million to $2,386 million) and cereals for grain and seed (from $317 million to $143 million). Over the same time period the largest increase in GVIAP was for sugar (from $537 million to $750 million), while rice had the largest percentage increase (161%), from $34 million to $90 million.
 
Note that estimates of GVIAP are given in current prices; that is, estimates are valued at the commodity prices of the period to which the observation relates.

GROSS VALUE OF IRRIGATED AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION (a)—2008–09 and 2009–10
	AUSTRALIA		STATE AND TERRITORY 2009–10
Commodity groups	2008–09	2009–10	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT
	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m	$m
Cereals for grain and seed	317	143	98	^ 8	30	^ 3	np	4	np	np
Total hay production	170	192	^ 56	^ 58	^ 54	^ 18	^ 1	5	^ 1	-
Cotton	620	664	394	-	271	-	-	-	-	-
Rice	34	90	89	-	^ 1	-	-	-	-	-
Sugar cane	537	750	np	-	np	-	-	-	-	-
Other broadacre crops	87	116	np	* 2	np	* 1	np	85	np	-
Fruit and nuts	2 390	2 242	289	732	700	260	150	73	39	-
Grapes	1 200	1 069	163	^ 367	^ 31	376	* 109	^ 18	np	np
Vegetables for human consumption and seed	2 625	2 386	286	511	721	393	253	202	np	np
Nurseries, cut flowers and cultivated turf	983	1 037	241	324	261	49	133	21	6	2
Dairy production	2 274	1 826	^ 341	^ 906	^ 178	^ 141	^ 65	195	-	-
Production from meat cattle	455	608	108	^ 185	216	^ 49	^ 18	33	-	-
Production from sheep and other livestock	201	362	^ 69	^ 159	* 1	^ 71	^ 26	36	-	-
Total GVIAP	11 953	11 485	2 147	3 254	3 224	1 360	757	671	69	3
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells) np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated na not available ^ estimate has a relative standard error of 10% to less than 25% and should be used with caution * estimate has a relative standard error of 25% to 50% and should be used with caution
(a) Gross value in current prices

 
Note that there was a slight revision to the methodology used to estimate GVIAP for livestock (dairy, meat cattle, sheep and other livestock) in 2009–10, so the movements in these estimates between 2008–09 and 2009–10 should be treated with caution. See the Explanatory Notes in the ABS publication Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production, 2009–10 (ABS cat. no. 4610.0.55.008) for more details.
 
For a full time series of GVIAP data from 2000–01 to 2008–09 (for all Sates and Territories), plus Murray–Darling Basin and Natural Resource Management (NRM) region data from 2005–06 to 2008–09, see the ABS publication Experimental Estimates of the Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production, 2000–01 to 2008–09 (ABS cat. no. 4610.0.55.008). Note that the changes in the livestock methodology (described above) will be reflected in a revised GVIAP time series to be published in 2012.
 Water Consumption
 
The agricultural activity with the highest water consumption in 2009–10 was dairy cattle grazing (868 GL or 12% of total consumption for Australia), followed by cotton growing (852 GL or 12%) and sugar cane growing (756 GL or 10%) (see table below). The activity with the largest increase in water consumption from 2008–09 to 2009–10 was rice growing (143%).
 

WATER CONSUMPTION, Agriculture, by activity—2008–09 and 2009–10
	AUSTRALIA		STATE AND TERRITORY 2009–10
Commodity groups	2008–09	2009–10	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT
	ML	ML	ML	ML	ML	ML	ML	ML	ML	ML
Cereals for grain/seed	829 495	567 821	393 865	31 762	112 499	6 621	15 533	np	np	np
Hay production(a)	547 790	551 170	183 232	136 997	116 184	86 581	np	np	3 263	-
Pastures for seed	182 055	na	na	na	na	na	na	na	na	na
Cotton	880 003	851 950	468 843	-	383 107	-	-	-	-	-
Rice	101 474	246 909	np	np	np	-	-	-	-	-
Sugar cane	761 086	756 317	np	-	np	-	-	-	-	-
Other broadacre crops	147 042	139 292	42 314	np	32 416	3 175	20 879	34 616	np	-
Fruit and nuts	635 103	654 663	116 531	259 716	122 668	103 372	36 519	7 649	8 208	-
Grapes	575 095	515 484	150 580	155 293	16 279	174 513	14 019	np	np	69
Vegetables for human consumption and seed	457 348	419 229	68 528	93 797	87 576	73 272	50 315	44 322	1 395	25
Nurseries, cut flowers and cultivated turf	69 377	63 483	18 488	11 247	18 438	2 880	10 783	896	610	142
Dairy cattle(b)	773 545	868 294	109 942	500 519	53 625	84 202	28 856	91 120	29	-
Meat cattle(b)	455 937	498 506	85 154	208 876	93 538	39 419	40 117	31 324	78	-
Sheep/other livestock(b)	289 041	354 803	104 804	88 364	7 555	90 695	20 506	42 846	32	-
Other agricultural water use(c)	824 909	762 716	201 820	139 366	213 380	60 291	88 207	23 413	np	232
Total(d)	7 588 682	7 358 756	2 204 243	1 644 108	2 037 251	772 283	340 265	305 366	54 634	607
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated.
(a) Includes pasture for silage.
(b) Irrigated land used for grazing.
(c) Includes livestock drinking water and dairy and piggeries cleaning.
(d) Total includes pastures or crops not classified elsewhere.
na not available

 
Water Source
 
The agricultural activities with the highest self-extracted water consumption in 2009–10 were dairy cattle grazing (433 GL), 'other' agricultural water use (which includes livestock drinking water and dairy and piggeries cleaning) (382 GL), sugar cane growing (323 GL) and cotton growing (310 GL) (see graph and table below). The activity with the highest distributed water consumption was cotton growing (530 GL), which was one of the few activities that consumed more distributed water than self-extracted, the others being fruit and nut growing, grape growing, rice, other broadacre crops, and nurseries, cut flowers and cultivated turf growing.

 

WATER CONSUMPTION, Agriculture, by activity and water type— 2009–10
	Self-extracted	Distributed	Reuse	Total
Commodity groups	ML	ML	ML	ML
Cereals for grain/seed	309 955	248 031	9 835	567 821
Hay production(a)	307 155	219 808	24 207	551 170
Pastures for seed	-	-	-	-
Cotton	309 627	530 126	12 197	851 950
Rice	99 981	144 214	2 713	246 909
Sugar cane	322 520	420 544	13 253	756 317
Other broadacre crops	47 361	89 904	2 026	139 292
Fruit and nuts	207 740	442 666	4 257	654 663
Grapes	151 418	361 985	2 082	515 484
Vegetables for human consumption and seed	233 630	173 685	11 915	419 229
Nurseries, cut flowers and cultivated turf	26 014	34 081	3 387	63 483
Dairy cattle(b)	432 866	413 762	21 666	868 294
Meat cattle(b)	248 518	237 550	12 439	498 506
Sheep/other livestock(b)	176 878	169 072	8 853	354 803
Other crops	76 827	30 559	734	108 119
Other agricultural water use(c)	381 837	377 250	3 629	762 716
Total volume applied(d)	3 332 327	3 893 236	133 194	7 358 756
(a) Includes pasture for silage.
(b) Irrigated land used for grazing.
(c) Includes livestock drinking water and dairy and piggeries cleaning.
(d) Total includes pastures or crops not classified elsewhere.

  
Reuse Water
 
Reuse water consumption for all agricultural activities in 2009–10 was 133 GL (see table above) which was 25% higher than in 2008–09, when reuse water consumption was 106 GL. The agricultural activities consuming the most reuse water were hay production (24 GL), dairy cattle grazing (22 GL) and sugar cane growing (13 GL). There were large decreases in the consumption of reuse water for cotton growing (11 GL), and grape growing (5 GL) between 2008–09 and 2009–10 (graph below).

  
Irrigated Land
 
The area of irrigated agricultural land increased from 1.76 million hectares in 2008–09 to 1.84 million hectares in 2009–10 (see table below), a 5% increase. There were increases in all irrigated commodity groups except for grapes, cereals for grain/seed and vegetables for human consumption and seed. The largest absolute increase in the area of irrigated land was in sheep/other livestock from 88,700 hectares in 2008–09 to 141,300 hectares in 2009–10. The largest absolute decrease in the area of land irrigated was for cereals for grain/seed, from 292,700 hectares in 2008–09 to 217,600 hectares in 2009–10.
 

AREA IRRIGATED CROPS AND PASTURES, by activity—2008–09 and 2009–10
	AUSTRALIA		2009–10
Commodity groups	2008–09	2009–10	NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT
	'000 ha	'000 ha	'000 ha	'000 ha	'000 ha	'000 ha	'000 ha	'000 ha	'000 ha	'000 ha
Cereals for grain/seed	292.7	217.6	151.5	18.7	37.1	5.1	np	3.8	np	-
Hay production	156.5	192.2	58.2	62.5	38.4	24.4	np	np	0.3	-
Pastures for seed	39.7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Cotton	141.9	153.2	80.1	-	73.1	-	-	-	-	-
Rice	7.2	18.9	np	np	np	-	-	-	-	-
Sugar cane	191.9	212.6	np	-	np	-	-	-	-	-
Other broadacre crops	51.8	59.1	21.1	np	np	1.4	3.0	17.1	np
Fruit and nuts	128.0	134.2	26.5	45.6	33.6	14.9	7.5	3.1	3.2	-
Grapes	172.3	162.6	37.2	38.1	np	71.9	11.2	1.3	np	0.1
Vegetables for human consumption and seed	104.6	104.3	14.8	25.2	29.4	11.8	8.0	14.6	0.7	-
Nurseries, cut flowers and cultivated turf	12.9	13.1	3.8	3.0	4.0	0.8	1.2	np	np	-
Dairy cattle(a)	221.7	229.5	37.0	131.7	15.9	13.3	5.7	25.9	-	-
Meat cattle(a)	133.0	171.4	40.4	70.1	30.5	10.1	6.8	13.5	-	-
Sheep/other livestock(a)	88.7	141.3	55.6	39.1	4.3	22.2	3.4	16.6	-	-
Total irrigated land(b)	1 760.8	1 840.6	550.0	440.7	502.6	186.5	50.8	104.8	5.0	0.2
Total agricultural land(c)	409 028.7	398 580.2	58 548.0	12 851.5	129 667.6	45 747.0	94 391.5	1 647.4	55 686.8	40.5
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells) np not available for publication bit included in totals where applicable unless otherwise indicated.
(a) Irrigated land used for grazing.
(b) Total includes pastures or crops not classified elsewhere.
(c) Total area of all agricultural holdings. Note that not all land on agricultural holdings is used for agricultural purposes.

 
The following graph shows the increases in area irrigated in Australia from 1920 to 2010. There are some gaps in the data series, however it can be seen that the area irrigated increased steadily from 1955 to 2006. There is a noticeable decrease from 2007 due to the effects of the drought leading to reduced water availability.