Agriculture in Australia a major industry, 402 000 people are employed in agriculture and agriculture related services, and agriculture accounts for approximately 3% of Australia’s GDP. Until the late 1950's agriculture accounted for up to 80% of Australia's export earnings, that percentage has fallen with diversification of the economy.
Australia produces a wide variety of crops and livesock, 80% of all agricultural production is exported. Australia is a vocal supporter of fair trade in Agriculture and is a member of the Cairns Group.
Challenges to the future of Australian agriculture include developing sustainable water management strategies for a drought prone environment, combating dryland salinity, and the decision to grow, or not to grow genetically modified foods.
History of agriculture in Australia
Following European settlement, the wool industry was the first large scale agricultural enterprise in Australia’s history. Wool was of key importance to the Australian economy, so much so that the phrase ‘Australia rides on the sheep’s back’ is still a part of the Australian vernacular. Wool production is less crucial today, the wool industry shrunk significatly in the 1990s due to low world prices and competition from synthetic fibre.
In the 1860s sugar was successfully grown in plantations in Queensland. A raw sugar mill was established at Ormiston , near Cleveland , Brisbane, by Captain Louis Hope . As the industry expanded throughout coastal Queensland and Northern New South Wales growth eventually became limited in the 1880s by high wages for farm labour. To overcome this problem, cheap “contract” labour was brought in from the South Pacific islands. Between 1863 and 1904, more than 60,000 Kanakas were brought to Queensland to work on sugar plantations, some illegally through a process known as “blackbirding”. This involved Europeans luring islanders onto ships by pretending that they wanted to trade with them, instead they were kidnapped and shipped to Australia where they were forced to work in sugar cane plantations.
Regulations were introduced in the late 1880s to control the import of Kanakas, and by 1908 many Kanakas had retuned home. Bulk handling was introduced to the industry in the 1950s, and 100% of cane was mechanically harvested by 1979. Australia is the worlds largest exporter of sugar, however due to falling world prices growers and restrictive international trade practices in the global sugar market grower incomes are predicted to fall.
The export of beef and mutton to the United Kingdom commenced with the advent of refrigeration. Export markets drove the expansion of meat production, and the 1932 Ottawa agreements granted preferential access for Australia to British markets. When this agreement expired in the 1960s, market focus shifted to the United States, Japan, the USSR and the Middle East.
Large scale broadacre cropping was promoted from 1901 when the Australian states formed a Federation. Between 1901 and World War I the wheat belt doubled in size. At the onset of World War II that Australian Wheat Board (AWB) was established to stabilise prices and meet war time demand, and the AWB was allowed monopoly control of the domestic market for 40 years. The security of a fixed price, soil improvement, disease-resistant varieties and improved cultivation techniques led to further expansion of the wheat belt. Increased mechanisation resulted in increased productivity, making wheat the dominant cereal crop produced in Australia. Domestic wheat marketing was deregulated in 1989.
Until the late 1950s, agricultural products accounted for more than 80% of the value of Australia's exports. Since then, that proportion has declined markedly as the Australian economy has become increasingly diverse. The quantity and value of production have expanded in the mining, manufacturing and, in recent years, the service industries.
Major agricultural products
Australia produces a large variety of primary products for both export and domestic consumption. The top ten agricultural products in 2001-2002 by value in Australian dollars were:
Crops
Cereals, oilseeds and grain legumes are produced on a large scale in Australia for human consumption and livestock feed. Wheat is the cereal with the greatest production in terms of area and value to the Australian economy. Sugarcane, grown in tropical Australia is also an important crop; however, the unsubsidised industry (while lower-cost than heavily subsidised European and American sugar producers) is struggling to compete with low-cost Brazilian product. Listed below is crop production by kilotonnes (five year average) for the largest crops:
Horticulture
Australia produces a wide variety of fruit, nuts and vegetables, the largest crops (>300 kilotonnes, in 2001-2001) include oranges, apples, bananas, chestnuts, potatoes, carrots and tomatoes.
Tropical fruits including bananas, mangoes and pineapples fair well in Queensland and the Northern Terrority.
Australia is one of the few countries that produces licit opium for pharmaceuticals. This industry, centred in Tasmania, is subject to strict controls.
Viticulture
Australia has a large wine industry, and the value of wine exports surpassed AUD$2.3 billion in 2002-2003. Wine regions include the Barossa Valley in South Australia, Victorian Sunraysia in Victoria and the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. The key wine varieties grown in Australia (by area in 2001-2002) are Chardonnay, Shiraz and Cabernet sauvignon.
Livestock
The number of livestock killed for domestic consumption or export, or exported live in 2001-2002 is shown in the following table:
| Livestock slaughterings
| Thousands ('000)
|
| Beef
| 8 587
|
| Cattle exported live
| 797
|
| Sheep
| 14 441
|
| Lambs
| 17 400
|
| Sheep exported live
| 6 443
|
| Pigs
| 5 402
|
| Poultry
| 416 000
|
The beef industry is the biggest agricultural enterprise in Australia. The Australian beef industry is dependent on export markets, with over 60% of Australian beef production exported, primarily to the United States and Japan. The industry has benefited from the discovery of BSE (also known as mad cow disease) in Canada, Japan and the United States, as Australia is free of the disease.
Lamb has become an increasingly important product as the sheep industry has moved its focus from wool production to the production of prime lamb. Live export of cattle and sheep from Australia to Asia and the Middle East is a large part of Australian meat exprot. Live export practises came under scrutiny after the carrier the Cormo Express carrying 52 000 animals was turned away from Saudi Arabia in 2003 due to suspected cases of scrapie. The sheep were eventually given to Eritrea, however media coverage has led to calls from animal rights activists for the live export trade to cease.
Dairy
Dairy products are Australia's fourth most valuable agricultural export.
Domestic milk markets were heavily regulated until the 1980's, particularly for milk used for domestic fresh milk sales, particularly protecting smaller producers in the northern states who produced exclusively for their local markets. The Kerin plan began the process of deregulation in 1986, with the final price supports being removed in 2000. [1]
Growth in the Australian dairy industry is dependent on expanding export markets. Exports are expected to continue to grow over time, particularly to Asia and the Middle East.
Fisheries
The gross value of production of Australia's fisheries and aquaculture products was $2.3 billion in 2002-03. The Australian aquaculture industry's share of this value has been steadily rising and now represents around 32 per cent.
The value of exports of fisheries products in 2002-03 was $1.84 billion. Australia's main seafood export earners include rock lobsters, prawns, tuna and abalone.
Fibre
Wool is still quite an important product of Australian agriculture. Australia has bred sheep varieties with very fine wool, such as the Merino. Alpaca and cashmere fibres are also produced in Australia.
Australia also produces considerable amounts of cotton. The majority of the cotton produced is genetically modified to be resistant to the herbicide Roundup or to actively kill pests through the production of Bt toxin (Bt-cotton).
Governance
Agriculture is both a federal and state responsibility in Australia. The Federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) is involved in agricultural policy
as well as running The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS).
The states departments perform extension work, and have plant breeding programs to make cultivars with properties suitable for the conditions in each state. The state departments are:
Since Australian agriculture focuses on agricultural exports, the Australian government has been a strident supporter of international reforms to agricultural trade barriers. In 1986 Australian created the Cairns Group with 16 other agricultural producers to promote fair trade in Agriculture. The Cairns Group has continued to play a key role in setting the agenda for the agriculture negotiations at meetings of the World Trade Organization.
In 1995 Uruguay Round of World Trade Organization talks Australia supported the Agreement on Agriculture which provided for increased market access to international markets through tariff cuts. Australia and the Cairns Group also played a key role in the 2001 Doha Development Round of WTO talks. At the Doha meeting a number of multilateral trade negotiations were agreed on, and the Centre for International Economics estimates that worldwide reductions in agricultural subsidies will could be worth as much as US$1.3 billion annually to the Australian economy by the end of the Doah round in 2010.
Future challenges
Drought
Drought is a significant challange for Australian farmers. Australia has periodic drought due to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Drought halved wheat production in 2002-2003, and had detrimental effects on the production of other crops and livestock. Water resource management is key for the productivity and longevity of Australian agriculture. Many scientists expect that global warming will make droughts more frequent in the most productive areas in Australian agriculture in the south, compounding this issue.
Salinity and soil acidity
Salinity on land and in fresh water is a byproduct of the european farming practices which replaced native vegetation with shallow-rooted crops and pastures in Australia. Rising groundwater levels, caused by these farming practices, are bringing with them dissolved salts which were stored in the soil. Salt is being transported to the root-zones of remnant vegetation, crops, pastures, and directly into wetlands, streams and river systems. The rising water tables are also affecting our rural infrastructure including buildings, roads, pipes and underground cables. Salinity reduces agricultural productivity and biodiversity in non-farm areas, the goals of saline land management are to stabilise and reverse the effects of salinity, improving water quality and supply.
Some crops and farming practices can make soils more acid than normal. This can affect the availability of nutrients in the soil and can lead to nutrient toxicity (eg aluminium toxicity or too much aluminium) or deficiency. Like salinity, soil acidity also limits the uses of agricultural land.
Invasive species
Feral animals, weeds, plant and animal disease caused by fungi, bacteria and viruses all have negative effects on Australian Agriculture. Australia maintains a strict Quarantine regime to prevent the entry of new invasive species.
Genetically modified crops
GM crops are a new policy area for Australian agriculture. The only genetically modified plants currently grown in Australia are GM carnations and cotton. GM cotton is grown for the production of lint for textiles and for oils for human consumption and livestock feed. The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) was established by the Australian government in 2001 under the auspices of the Commonwealth Gene Technology Act (2000). The OGTR must approve genetically modified crops for release in Australia. The OGTR approved the cultivation of GM Canola in 2004, but the crop is not currently cultivated since the state governments have banned GM food crops outright or imposed moratoria.
References
- All statistics come from:
- Cornwall, J, Collies, G, adm Ashton, P. (2001). Sustaining a Nation: Celebrating 100 years of agriculture in Australia. Australia:Focus Publishing. ISBN 1-875359-74-5.
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Trade in Agriculture [4]
- History of the Australian Sugar Industry [5]
- The Australian State of the Environment Report 2001 [6]
