4618.0 - Water Use on Australian Farms, 2011-12 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 31/05/2013   
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Image: Water pipes 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.

Graph Image for Irrigation Activity by Commodity

Annotation(s): MDB=Murray-Darling Basin;MDB=Murray-Darling Basin;MDB=Murray-Darling Basin

Source(s): Water Use on Australian Farms (cat. no. 4618.0)