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OVERVIEW

Agriculture is an important industry in the MDB, using 84% of the Basin's land in 2005-06 (see table 1.4 in Chapter 1). Moreover, 88.8 million hectares (ha) or 20% of Australia's agricultural land use occurred within the MDB (table 4.1). Approximately $15 billion of Australia's total value of agricultural commodities were produced in the MDB. This represented 39% of the Australian value of agricultural commodity production. Of the Basin states, New South Wales made the most significant agricultural contribution, with 51.2 million ha or 58% of the Basin's agricultural land, and almost half (49%) of the farms in 2005-06.

4.1 Number of farms and agricultural area—At 30 June 2006
		Farms		Agricultural area
		Number	Proportion of Australian farms	Area	Proportion of Australian agricultural area
		no.	%	'000 ha	%
Murray-Darling Basin
	New South Wales	29 803	19	51 214	12
	Victoria	18 496	12	7 593	2
	Queensland	7 881	5	23 421	5
	South Australia	4 753	3	6 555	2
	Australian Capital Territory	99	-	45	-
	Total(a)	61 033	39	88 828	20
Balance of Australia
	New South Wales	19 034	12	10 906	3
	Victoria	18 650	12	4 721	1
	Queensland	24 331	16	122 098	28
	South Australia	11 702	8	48 854	11
	Western Australia	14 526	9	98 653	23
	Tasmania	4 745	3	1 739	-
	Northern Territory	659	-	59 127	14
	Total(a)	93 648	61	346 097	80
Australia		154 681	100	434 925	100
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Components may not add to total due to rounding.
Source: Water Use on Australian Farms, 2005–06, cat. no. 4618.0

4.2 AVERAGE AREA OF AGRICULTURAL HOLDING, by Statistical Local Area—Murray-Darling Basin—2006