QTPA Member Alert |ABS AGRICULTURAL WATER USE AUSTRALIA (3/6/2013)
ABS AGRICULTURAL WATER USE AUSTRALIA
- Consecutive years of good rainfall has resulted in increased water availability for the agricultural sector.
- Australia’s total agricultural water use in 2011-12 was 9,007 gigalitres, which was 1,456 gigalitres (19%) more than in 2010-11.
- More than two thirds (69%) of this use was in the Murray-Darling Basin, which amounted to 6,174 gigalitres.
- The states using the most water were New South Wales with 3,751 gigalitres and Queensland with 2,108 gigalitres.
IRRIGATION ACTIVITY BY COMMODITY
Area
- In 2011-12, the largest area of irrigated land in Australia was pasture and cereal crops used for grazing or fed off, which accounted for 614,000 hectares, or 29% of the total area irrigated.
- In the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), pastures and cereal crops used for grazing or fed off accounted for the largest area of irrigated land, with 398,000 hectares, or 28% of the total irrigated land in the MDB. This was closely followed by cotton, with 366,000 hectares (26%) irrigated.
Water used for irrigation
- The largest volume of irrigation water was applied to cotton, which used 2,069 gigalitres, or 25% of the national irrigation total for the year (8,175 gigalitres).
- Cotton used the largest volume of irrigation water in the MDB, with 1,906 gigalitres being applied, which represented nearly one third (32%) of all irrigation water used in the MDB in 2011-12.
Application rate
- The commodity with the highest irrigation application rate in 2011-12 was rice, which used 11.0 ML/ha in the MDB and nationally.
- Nursery Cultivated Turf and Cut Flowers had an irrigation application rate in 2011-12 was 4.2 ML/ha across Australia.
water use on australian farms 11.12
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