Broadacre productivity growth slows on the back of hot, dry conditions in WA

Hot and dry conditions in WA two years ago have attributed to a national slowdown in broadacre productivity.

New figures from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences showed national broadacre productivity slowed during the 2023-24 year.

Despite this, WA emerged as Australia’s top performer in broadacre productivity with output increasing 1.5 per cent during that time period — outpacing all other States.

Its cropping productivity growth hit 1.2 per cent — outpacing only Queensland.

Across all farming sectors, productivity growth nationally averaged one per cent in 2023-24 with cropping the strongest performer at 1.6 per cent, ahead of dairy (1.2 per cent) and sheep and beef production (0.6 per cent).

ABARES executive director Jared Greenville said productivity was an important measure of farm performance — showing how efficiently inputs were used to produce outputs.

“The drop in growth we’ve seen is mostly due to hot and dry conditions in 2023-24 impacting cropping output in WA,” Dr Greenville said.

“While broadacre productivity growth declined in the latest period for some States, it increased in Victoria as different areas and farm types experienced different seasonal conditions.

“Productivity for dairy farms . . . has slowed considerably, whereas areas with higher natural rainfall and a lower reliance on purchased fodder remain strong.

“That said, it’s clear that this slowdown is more of an issue for some farm types and regions than others.”

Australian farmers are expected to produce $91 billion dollars of food and fibre this year — the third-most valuable year on record.

But the rate at which farmers are driving efficiencies, despite Australia being considered a global leader in agricultural productivity until about the 2000s and 2010s.

The average annual growth of broadacre productivity increasing at 0.6 per cent since 1999-2000, down from more than 2 per cent per year before 2000.

The insights came from the latest Australian Farm Productivity — Broadacre and Dairy Estimates report based on data tracing back as far as 1977-78.

Dr Greenville said that despite the trends and latest figures, agriculture is performing relatively well compared to other industries.

“We are also seeing rising differences between the ‘all-agriculture’ productivity numbers released by the ABS in their industry-level statistics, which rose for 2023-24, and the fall in our broadacre productivity statistics,” he said.

“The difference is likely due to productivity growth in other sectors, like horticulture, aquaculture, forestry and pork and poultry.”

Broadacre productivity growth 2023-24

WA: 1.5 per cent

Victoria: 1.2 per cent

South Australia: 1.2 per cent

New South Wales: 0.7 per cent

Queensland: 0.7 per cent

Tasmania: 0.4 per cent