| | | With Australia having a significant domestic fishing sector that relies on this fish stock, our advice is highly valued.
We delivered Australia's response to the findings of the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2024-2033 (more on this below) and sat on the expert panel on the Innovation for Sustainability session at Science Summit 2024 as part of the 79th UN General Assembly.
Providing evidence-based advice on the sustainability of our natural resources is central to what we do at ABARES as you will see in our upcoming Fisheries Status Reports and State of the Forests releases. | | | | OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook - Australia's response
ABARES executive director Dr Jared Greenville delivered Australia's response to the findings of the 2024-2033 OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook in a special webinar event featuring presentations from the OECD and facilitated by DAFF.
It provided a chance to discuss the 10-year projection on the prospects for agricultural commodity and fish markets at national, regional and global levels.
Dr Greenville spoke on how the Outlook pointed to growing opportunities for Australian farmers as well as the challenges our food systems are facing and what can be done to meet those challenges. | | | | Winter crop prospects vary
Varying seasonal conditions across Australia point to different state-level outlooks in our September winter crop forecasts.
While overall winter crop production is forecast to increase 17% to 55.2 million tonnes in 2024–25 - the fifth highest on record if realised - not all farms in all regions are expecting to see an improvement.
Winter crop production is forecast to rise to near-record levels in New South Wales and Queensland, with excellent yield potential heading into spring following a strong start to the winter cropping season and above average rainfall in most cropping regions.
In Western Australia, winter crop production is now expected to be above average despite a dry start to the season. Crops are developing well following timely winter rainfall, particularly across northern and western cropping regions.
By contrast, production prospects are lower in South Australia and Victoria where planting and establishment conditions have been unfavourably dry across major cropping regions in South Australia and parts of Victoria.
Dry conditions throughout the season have led to moisture stress in some areas with winter crop yields in these regions forecast to be below average.
Read more in the 2024 September Australian Crop Report | | | - ABARES 2024/25 Australian winter crop production forecast.
| | | | Bears out and about
The ANU Research School of Economics gave us a valuable opportunity to present to about 30 high-performing economics students during an immersive study visit in August.
Hearing directly from some of our graduates, students gained insights into how ABARES impacts policy and decision-making, as well as how their current economic studies can be applied to real-world situations.
Also in August, we participated in the Government Scientists Group STEM Expo at Parliament House as part of the DAFF stall.
The Expo was an opportunity to interact with scientists, engineers, technologists, mathematicians, and researchers working within government to solve some of Australia's biggest challenges.
It was a great experience engaging with high school students from the ACT and surrounding areas of NSW, who asked insightful questions about ABARES' work, particularly regarding opportunities in fisheries and marine biology.
Visit ABARES Careers https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/careers | | | - ABARES crew Holly, Jay, Yilei and Christian at the ANU Immersive Study visit.
| | | | Australian gridded farm data
ABARES has released a new gridded data set of farm business information, providing a range of variables on broadacre farm businesses across Australia relating to crop and livestock production, costs receipts and profits.
The Australian Gridded Farm Data are a set of national scale maps containing simulated data on historical broadacre farm business outcomes including farm profitability on an 0.05-degree (approximately 5km) grid.
This release has a range of potential uses, particularly for researchers or developers, including high-resolution analysis of farm business risk, land-use change modelling, or downscaling of agricultural statistics.
Visit Australian Gridded Farm Data for the full report and data files. | | | | Insights report looks at productivity challenges
Our latest Insights report looks at the state-of-play of Australian farm productivity, including recent drivers of growth, the challenges for farmers and industry, and future opportunities.
Australian farmers have benefited from a period of sustained productivity growth over the last five decades.
However, since 2000, this growth appears to be slowing compared to the productivity gains achieved during the 1980s and 1990s when structural adjustment and the adoption of labour-saving mechanisation was in full force.
Finding opportunities to accelerate productivity growth will be important to ensure farmers stay competitive while adapting to future challenges.
Continued investment in R&D - and practices to help agriculture thrive in a changing climate, along with uptake of new technologies by farms - will be key.
Go to ABARES Insights | | | | Your say on water use stats
ABARES and the ABS are working together to modernise the way agricultural statistics are produced, replacing the use of the agricultural census and surveys with alternative data sources and methods. This will involve looking at how water statistics are collected and reported, such as those found in the Water Use on Australian Farms statistics.
ABARES, in consultation with the ABS, is currently undertaking a review to evaluate the value of the Water Use on Australian Farms publication and the use by the community of these statistics, and would like to hear from you if you have a need for data about on-farm water use, or use data from the ABS' Water Use on Australian Farms statistics.
We will soon be releasing a Have Your Say survey to understand what data is needed about on-farm water use in Australia. This is a voluntary web-based survey, and should take no longer than 5-10 minutes to complete. Your responses will help inform the future of the statistics.
If you would like to participate and share your thoughts, look out for the survey coming shortly to the DAFF Have Your Say site. Alternatively, you can reach out to the Agricultural Statistics Unit by emailing abares-agriculturalstatistics@aff.gov.au | | | | Farmers' terms of trade forecast to rise
Farmers' terms of trade (FTOT) is forecast to increase by 2% in 2024–25, the first increase since 2020–21.
FTOT compares the average prices paid by Australian agricultural businesses for inputs to the farmgate prices they receive for production. The forecast rise in the FTOT as part of ABARES September Agricultural Commodities Report reflects easing prices paid in 2024–25 for many major inputs.
Global energy prices are expected to fall in 2024–25 supporting lower fuel, fertiliser and chemical prices for Australian farm businesses.
By contrast, prices received by farmers are expected to remain relatively stable in 2024–25 with lower crop prices offset by higher livestock prices.
Download the 2024 September Agricultural Commodities Report. | | | | Agriculture emissions intensity statistics
International databases of on-farm emissions intensity are increasingly used to inform international policy debate and advice.
While databases covering a broader scope of emissions and the entire life cycle of a commodity are valuable, they are often not utilised in international agricultural trade policy debate given participants' policy focus on agriculture within the farm gate.
In international trade forums, emissions intensity statistics from FAOSTAT and OECD, which focus on emissions within the farm, are widely used. There are important caveats and aspects of these databases that can lead to misleading results.
While these databases will not replace other more detailed measures for supply chain reporting, they can influence international trade policy discussions and so remain important.
A new set of agricultural emissions intensity statistics released by ABARES uses the latest international data for a more balanced comparison across countries.
The ABARES International Farmgate Emissions Intensity Statistics site addresses challenges such as the use of one-size-fits-all methodologies for calculating emissions, attributing emissions across multiple product systems, and expressing emissions per dollar estimates.
To learn more and see the data click on ABARES International farmgate emissions intensity statistics. | | | - Graph below: Indicative agricultural emissions of a basket of major agricultural commodities (3-year average, 2018-2020)
| | | | Upcoming releases - ABARES Fisheries Status reports 2024 (Oct)
- Release of 16 updated indicators of Australia's State of the Forests Report (Oct)
- ABARES National Wood Processing Survey 2021-22 (Oct)
- Australian dairy financial performance (Oct / Nov)
Bookmark ABARES latest product releases | | | | |
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