Productivity growth for broadacre farming weakens

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

“We’ve seen a similar multi-speed effect before in our analysis of the dairy industry.

“Productivity for dairy farms, particularly in irrigated regions, 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.”

The latest figures come on the back of a longer term slowing of productivity growth rates in recent decades, with the average annual growth of broadacre productivity increasing at 0.6 per cent since 1999-2000, down from more than two per cent/year before 2000.

Dr Greenville said 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.

“Despite the differences, the benefits from measuring productivity from farm-level data is that we can understand the changes in productivity across farm-types and regions.

“This provides a detailed view that can better inform attempts to lift productivity performance.”

Read the latest ABARES productivity report at: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/productivity/agricultural-productivity-estimates