4630.0 - Agricultural Resource Management Practices, Australia, 2011-12 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/06/2013  First Issue
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Image: Dry soil SOIL MANAGEMENT

In 2011-12:

NATIONAL AND STATE/TERRITORY
  • In Australia, approximately 22,000 agricultural businesses (or 16% of all agricultural businesses) reported using some type of soil enhancer on their agricultural land, covering an area of 3.7 million hectares.
  • The most common type of soil enhancer used was lime and/or dolomite, with around 59% of agricultural businesses using soil enhancer applying those types. This was followed by gypsum and compost, with 28% and 15% of agricultural businesses using soil enhancers applying those types respectively.
  • Lime and/or dolomite were applied to 1.7 million hectares of agricultural land, which was 47% of the total area to which soil enhancers were applied. Around 987,000 hectares of this was in Western Australia, representing approximately 57% of the area to which lime and/or dolomite were applied. Victoria accounted for around 289,000 hectares and New South Wales 272,000 hectares, each representing 17% and 16% of the total area to which those types of soil enhancer were applied.
  • Gypsum application was reported in all states of Australia. In Victoria gypsum was applied to 296,000 hectares, followed by 294,000 hectares in New South Wales.
  • The use of biochar as a soil enhancer was not reported as a common activity, with application to only 10,100 hectares across Australia, accounting for less than 1% of the total area of soil enhancer use.



Graph Image for Soil enhancers

Footnote(s): (a) Includes ACT. (b) Zero values may represent data that is not available for publication due to confidentiality restrictions.

Source(s): Agricultural Resource Management Practices, Australia (cat. no. 4603.0)





AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS (AAE)
  • Soil enhancers were most commonly used by agricultural businesses situated in the Wheatbelt East (3,800 businesses) and Subtropical Coast (2,500 businesses) regions.
  • Lime and/or dolomite were most widely applied to the Wheatbelt West regions (627,000 hectares) and the Wheatbelt East ( 298,000 hectares) regions.
  • The percentage of agricultural businesses applying soil enhancers varied from as low as 1% in the Semi Arid region, to 33% in the Wheatbelt West region (see map below).



Image: Map of farms using soil enhancers