• Summary
• Downloads
• Explanatory Notes
• Related Information
• Past Releases

INTRODUCTION

The publication Salinity on Australian Farms 2002 presents the first results of the Land Management and Salinity Survey which was conducted in May 2002 as a supplement to the 2001 Agricultural Census. Additional results from the survey will be made available at a later date with details to be advised in the ABS Release Advice. The additional results will include further information and analysis. Some Agricultural Census results have been included in this publication to provide contextual and other information, and Agricultural Census information is clearly identified where it is used.

The 2002 Land Management and Salinity Survey was mainly targeted at the reference population of farm establishments which answered yes to either or both questions in the 2001 Agricultural Census regarding having land affected by salinity or using salinity management strategies. The survey results in this publication are based on a sample of approximately 20,000 farms establishments and the results have been weighted to cover the full reference population.

Salinity naturally occurs in Australia, but the clearing of native vegetation and use of water for irrigated agriculture, domestic and other uses has caused the salt stored beneath the ground to surface in many areas. This has affected agricultural production and damaged civil infrastructure, such as roads.

Salinity is divided into two types, dryland and irrigated. Dryland salinity is far more widespread but, in both types of salinity, it is water imbalances that are the fundamental cause of salinisation. Primarily to address the issue of dryland salinity, the Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments have adopted the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP). The NAP has identified 21 high priority regions and data for these regions are reported in this publication. A map of these regions can be found here.

The 2002 Land Management and Salinity Survey collected information from farmers on the extent of land showing signs of salinity as well as the strategies used by farmers to manage and prevent salinity. Farmer assessments of the extent of salinity may differ from assessments made by scientific means, but are an indication of the level of salinity occurring on farms that can be provided rapidly and cost-effectively. The 2002 Land Management and Salinity Survey also has the advantage that farm management activities can be assessed in the context of economic and other information collected by the ABS and other agencies.

It is important to note that the 2002 Land Management and Salinity Survey provides information for agricultural land as defined for the ABS agricultural collections (see explanatory notes). Agricultural land defined in this way occupies approximately 460 million hectares, representing 60% of land use in Australia, but salinity and salinity management also occur on non-agricultural land. Non-agricultural land was out of scope for the 2002 Land Management and Salinity Survey.

Several of the strategies used to manage salinity as reported in this publication are also used by farmers for other reasons. For example, pastures are sown with lucerne, or trees planted, for reasons other than salinity. The results presented in this publication only refer to the activities specifically identified for salinity management by farmers. The activity may have more than one purpose and is only reported where it was wholly or partly for salinity management.


MAIN FINDINGS

• A little under 20,000 farms and 2 million hectares of agricultural land were reported by farmers as showing signs of salinity.

• Nearly 30,000 farms have implemented salinity management practices.

• Of the agricultural land showing signs of salinity, 800,000 hectares is unable to be used for agricultural production.

• The state most affected by salinity is Western Australia, with 7,000 farms and 1.2 million hectares showing signs of salinity.

• Farms within the regions identified in the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP regions), account for 17,000 farms or 87% of farms showing signs of salinity and 1.3 million hectares or 66% of the area showing signs of salinity. The NAP region most affected by salinity was Avon (WA) with 2,297 farms and 450,000 hectares showing signs of salinity.

• Non-irrigated farms accounted for 1.8 million hectares or 93% of the agricultural land showing signs of salinity.

• Farms primarily involved with the production of beef cattle, sheep and grains accounted for 16,000 or 82% of the farms showing signs of salinity and 1.9 million hectares or 97% of the agricultural land showing signs of salinity.

• The most common salinity management practices employed were:

• Crops, pastures and fodder plants for salinity management, 3.2 million hectares
• Trees for salinity management, 776,000 hectares
• Earthworks (levees, banks and drains) for salinity management, 208,000 km
• Fencing for salinity management, with 466,000 hectares fenced

• Just over 7,000 irrigated farms had made changes to irrigation practices for salinity management purposes.

• The main motivations for implementation of salinity management practices were for:

• Farm sustainability (66% of farmers implementing change saying this was of high importance)
• Environmental protection (56%)
• Increase or maintain agricultural production (54% )

• The main reported barriers to changing land management practices were lack of financial resources and lack of time (35% and 21% of all farmers reporting these as very limiting, respectively). Lack of information or doubts about likely success were not considered by a majority of farmers to be barriers to change (in each case 52% of all farmers reported these as not a factor).

Download map of NAP regions If you do not have reader software...

State	Farms with land showing signs of salinity Farms with land showing signs of salinity	Proportion of total farms in State (a)	Land showing signs of salinity	Proportion of total farm area in State (b)	Salinised land unable to be used for production	Proportion of land showing signs of salinity (c)	Proportion of total farm area in State (d)
	no.	%	'000 ha	%	'000 ha	%	%
NSW/ACT	3108	7.4	124	0.20	44	35.6	0.1
Vic.	4834	13.7	139	1.1	60	43.5	0.5
Qld	993	3.4	107	0.1	40	37.4	-
SA	3328	21.6	*350	0.6	105	30.1	0.2
WA	6918	51.3	1241	1.1	567	45.7	0.5
Tas.	390	9.1	6	0.3	2	27.2	0.1
NT	8	2.0	2	-	2	97.3	-
Total Australia	19579	13.9	1969	0.4	821	41.7	0.2

State	Crops, pastures and fodder plants	Trees	Land fenced from grazing	Earthworks
	'000 ha	'000 ha	'000 ha	'000 km
NSW/ACT	1096	91	17	43
Vic.	*680	40	40	37
Qld	331	126	*267	15
SA	452	14	29	*13
WA	633	500	352	98
Tas.	*7	5	1	*3
NT	*6	-	-	-
Total Australia	3205	776	466	207959.12

Reason	Not a reason	Low importance	Medium importance	High importance	Total
	%	%	%	%	%
Increased productivity	18.6	6.7	20.5	54.2	100
Increased land value	28.8	15.4	27.7	28.1	100
Improved risk management	33.2	12.1	25.8	28.9	100
Farm sustainability	13.5	*3.9	16.3	66.3	100
Improved environment protection	12.6	5.1	26.8	55.6	100

Barrier	Not a factor	Not very limiting	Limiting	Very limiting	Total
	%	%	%	%	%
Lack of financial resources	23.8	7.9	32.8	35.5	100
Lack of time	29.7	13.4	36.1	20.8	100
Insufficient or inadequate information	52.1	24.8	17.4	5.8	100
Doubts about likely success	51.8	23.1	18.3	6.8	100
Age or poor health	70.6	12.5	10.3	6.6	100

State	PMSEIC 1999	NLWRA 2001	ABS 2002
	Area of salinity affected land (a)	Area at risk of salinity (b)	Area showing signs of salinity (c)
	'000 ha	'000 ha	'000 ha
NSW/ACT	120	181	124
Vic.	120	670	138
Qld	10	n.a.	106
SA	402	390	350
WA	1802	4363	1241
Tas.	20	54	6
NT	0	0	2
Total Australia	2476	5658	1969

NAP Region	Farms with land showing signs of salinity	Proportion of farms in region (b)	Land showing signs of salinity	Proportion of total farm area in region (c)	Salinised land unable to be used for production	Proportion of land showing signs of salinity unable to be used for production in NAP Region (d)
	no.	%	'000 ha	%	'000 ha	%
Avocca-Loddon-Campaspe	1254	27.9	39	1.9	13	33.5
Avon	2297	79.9	451	5.8	285	63.2
Border Rivers	150	4.3	na	0.2	na	na
Burdekin-Fitzroy	152	3.3	**36	0.1	**20	56.4
Condamine-Balonne-Maranoa	145	2.3	*28	0.2	** 2	7.7
Darwin-Katherine	1	0.4	2	-	2	100.0
Glenelg-Hopkins-Corangamite	1438	18.7	*31	1.2	10	33.0
Goulburn-Broken	512	9.2	7	0.5	2	23.2
Lachlan-Murrumbidgee	1477	14.8	*47	0.5	5	11.7
Lockyer-Burnet-Mary	255	3.6	*2	0.1	*1	48.5
Lower Murray	1658	15.4	111	0.5	56	50.3
Macquarie-Castlereagh	497	8.5	9	0.1	*4	39.4
Midlands	318	15.6	*5	0.4	*1	27.6
Mt. Lofty-Kangaroo Island- Northern Agricultural District	2001	27.1	*59	1.3	**25	42.5
Murray	306	8.9	*12	0.3	2	18.6
Namoi-Gwydir	277	7.1	*7	0.2	* 1	10.3
Northern Agricultural District	878	55.0	153	2.8	92	60.4
Ord	9	8.6	-	-	-	22.7
South Coast	1428	61.8	75	2.4	43	57.2
South East	266	10.3	61	3.6	*10	16.9
South West	1793	38.8	157	5.0	79	50.7
Total NAP	17131	17.7	1302	0.9	671	51.6
Total non-NAP	2449	5.6	667	0.2	150	22.5
Total Australia	19579	13.9	1969	0.4	821	41.7

	NAP region	Non-NAP	Total (NAP and non-NAP)
	000 ha	000 ha	000 ha
NSW/ACT	113	* 12	125
Vic.	129	9	138
Qld	67	*40	107
SA	152	*199	351
WA	836	405	1241
Tas	5	1	6
NT	2	*-	2
Total Australia	1302	667	1969
	%	%	%
NSW/ACT	90	10	100
Vic.	94	6	100
Qld	62	38	100
SA	43	57	100
WA	67	33	100
Tas	75	25	100
NT	100	0	100
Total Australia	66	34	100