The Australian Bureau of Statistics has officially confirmed Australia's 2011-12 cotton crop was a record 973,000 tonnes, up 15% on the previous year. It’s Agricultural Commodities 2011-12 report showed a slight increase in the total area planted to cotton, to 596,000 ha nationally.
Production for NSW was up by 21% to 604,000 tonnes for the period, while Queensland's production rose by 6% to 369,000 tonnes.
The ABS also reported the area of land used for agriculture in Australia fell by 1% in 2011-12, to 405 million ha. However, the area planted to crops remained steady over the period at 32.0 million ha.
Of Australia's total land area, approximately 53% was used for agriculture. The highest proportion of use, 79% of state area, was Queensland.
Other key national facts for the period, as reported by the ABS:
-121,000 businesses reported agriculture as their main activity, with beef cattle the largest sector (comprising almost one-third of businesses)
- 14,700 businesses undertook agricultural operations as a secondary activity
- the canola harvest was also the largest on record at 3.4 million tonnes
- wheat production increased by 9% over the previous year, to 29.9 million tonnes
- lupin production increased nationally by 22% to 982,000 tonnes
- the area planted to sugar cane for crushing increased by 10% to 339,000 tonnes, although production only rose by 3% over the previous year to 26.0 million tonnes
