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The high variability in river flow and annual rainfall, which are features of the Australian environment, means that successful ongoing production of many crops and pastures is dependent on irrigation. With such variation in rainfall, it is uncommon for farmers to receive all of their irrigation water entitlement each year. In 2001-02 farmers were allocated, on average, 85% of their irrigation water entitlement.

Rice is only grown in areas that can guarantee an adequate supply of irrigation water. Cotton, vegetables, fruit (including nuts and grapes) and sugar cane are the other most intensively irrigated crops, with 91%, 84%, 79% and 43% respectively of their total growing areas being irrigated in 2001-02.

The total area of land irrigated, about 2.5 million ha in 2001-02 (table 14.3), represents less than 1% of the total land used for agriculture. However, produce from irrigated land accounted for around 28% of the total gross value of agricultural production in 2000-01.

Most irrigated land is located within the confines of the Murray-Darling Basin, which covers parts of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

14.3 AREA OF CROPS AND PASTURES IRRIGATED - 2001-02
		NSW	Vic.	Qld	SA	WA	Tas.	NT	ACT	Aust.
		’000 ha	’000 ha	’000 ha	’000 ha	’000 ha	’000 ha	’000 ha	’000 ha	’000 ha
Pastures (native or sown)		330	478	63	61	^11	29	4	-	976
Cereals
	Rice	143	^2	-	(a)	-	(a)	-	-	145
	Other cereals	290	^33	^52	(a)	^-	(a)	-	-	376
	Total	434	^35	^53	^5	-	^2	-	-	528
Cotton		^290	-	127	-	-	-	-	-	418
Sugar cane cut for crushing		**	-	233	-	4	-	-	-	237
Vegetables		17	26	29	12	9	17	-	-	110
Fruit (incl. nuts)		28	24	32	19	6	^4	3	-	116
Grapevines		29	35	^2	61	^7	*1	-	-	137
All other crops		^26	8	^20	^10	3	14	-	-	81
Total		1,126	588	541	174	39	68	8	-	2,545
(a) Data not separately collected but included in total cereals. Source: Agricultural Commodities, Australia, 2001-02 (7121.0).