Horticulture farms in the Murray-Darling Basin 2012-13 to 2014-15

Horticulture farms in the Murray-Darling Basin presents key farm performance measures for irrigated citrus, pome and stone fruit growing farms in the Basin, including data on water trading and use of irrigation technologies, with an emphasis on results from 2012-13 to 2014-15.

ABARES has conducted surveys of irrigation farms in selected industries and regions in the Murray-Darling Basin since 2006-07. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) funded this latest survey.

This report focuses on citrus, pome fruit and stone fruit growing farms in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. The Basin accounts for about three-quarters of Australia's citrus, pome fruit and stone fruit production with a large percentage of these crops grown in the southern Basin.

Average farm cash income for citrus farms increased to around $90 000 in 2013-14 and then declined to around $72 000 in 2014-15. Pome fruit and stone fruit growers achieved average farm cash incomes of around $108 000 and $75 000 in 2013-14 and 2014-15, respectively.

In 2014-15 the average rate of return (excluding capital appreciation) was 0.4 per cent for citrus growers and 0.7 per cent for pome and stone fruit growers.

An increasing proportion of citrus farms used drip/trickle systems and fewer farms used low-throw sprinklers. Other irrigation systems used by citrus growers included micro sprays, overhead sprinklers and flood/furrow irrigation. Low-throw sprinklers and drip/trickle irrigation were also the most commonly used systems on stone fruit farms. Pome fruit was irrigated using a range of systems, with the most popular systems being low-throw sprinklers, micro sprays and drip/trickle irrigation.

Few citrus growers traded water from 2010-11 to 2012-13, but around 54 per cent were net sellers of water in 2013-14. Most pome and stone fruit growers were non-traders in all years except 2007-08 and 2013-14.