During the year ended 30 June 2004, 7.2 million hectares of land in NSW were used for cropping.
The availability of water is central to the state's agricultural development. Rainfall is low and irregular over a wide area, yet at times flooding can be a serious problem. The construction of water conservation projects, especially around the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers, has changed the pattern of agriculture from the grazing of livestock to the sowing of crops.
PRINCIPAL CROPS, NSW, 2003-04
|
| Production
'000 t | Area
'000 ha | Yield
t/ha |
|
Barley for grain | 1,955.2 | 951.0 | 2.1 |
Rice for grain | 550.4 | 65.7 | 8.4 |
Sugar cane cut for crushing | * 2,988.0 | * 30.0 | ^ 99.5 |
Wheat for grain | 7,288.2 | 3,983.4 | 1.8 |
|
^ data subject to sampling variability between 10% and 25%
* data subject to sampling variability between 25% and 50%
Source:Agricultural Commodities, Australia (cat. no. 7121.0).