MEDIA RELEASE
29 November 2011	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	149/2011

Vegetable, fruit and dairy production, totalling $6.4 billion, accounted for more than half of the total $11.5 billion irrigated agricultural production for 2009-10, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production (GVIAP) represented around 29% of the total value of agricultural production, which was worth $39.8 billion in 2009-10.

In the States, Victoria and Queensland combined comprised more than half the national total producing nearly $6.5 billion of agricultural production with the aid of irrigation. In Victoria, dairy was the main irrigated commodity, whilst in Queensland it was vegetables.

The Murray Darling Basin (nearly one quarter of Australian agricultural land) represented 38% of the national GVIAP total, or $4.4 billion. The most prominent irrigated commodity in the Murray Darling Basin was fruit, with over $1 billion of value due to irrigation last year.

Rice was the commodity with the highest proportion of irrigated production, with 100% of rice crops requiring irrigation. The production value was $88.9 million.

Cereals for grain and feed (including wheat, oats and barley) had the lowest proportion of irrigated production. Around 2% (or $143.1 million) of the value of these crops ($6.7 billion) was due to irrigation.

Media notes:

• Please ensure when reporting on ABS data that you attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) as the source.