A new map of Australian agricultural production reveals record agricultural yield in the years 2016 and 2017.

The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources’ map of Australia’s agriculture shows that the highest revenue crop per tonne produced and per hectare sown in 2015-16 was cotton, with sugar cane as the highest yielding per hectare.

The PDF Map shows a range of trends and observations, drawing on ABARES’ data holdings on land use and agricultural commodities, and its analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) surveyed data.

ABARES Executive Director, Steve Hatfield-Dodds, said the Australia’s Agricultural Industries 2017 map provides an overview of the Australian agricultural landscape.

“The gross value of farm production was more than $63 billion in 2016-17, reflecting record production,” Dr Hatfield-Dodds said in a press statement.

“The top two commodities by gross value of production in 2015-16, were beef and veal (cattle and calves) at $13.1 billion, and wheat at $6.2 billion.For horticulture, grapes had the highest gross value of production, while almonds were the highest revenue per tonne produced, and potatoes had the highest yield per hectare in 2015-16.”

The map shows that agriculture covers 58 per cent of Australia’s land mass, the largest agricultural land use is grazing of native vegetation at 45 per cent, with 90 per cent occurring on leasehold land. Other agricultural land uses tend to occur on freehold land, at 82-94 per cent.

“Agricultural products accounted for 15 per cent of Australia’s total exports in 2015-16, with the top five export destinations being China, United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Indonesia, and the top five commodities exported (by value) were beef and veal, wheat, wool, dairy and wine,” Dr. Hatfield-Dodds’ statement said.

The Australia’s Agricultural Industries 2017 map can be downloaded from Australia’ Agricultural Industries Map 2017.