Agriculture occupies 60 percent of the land area of Australia, but much of this is used for open range cattle grazing, especially in huge areas of the states of Queensland and Western Australia. Only 5 percent of Australia's agricultural land is used for growing crops. Western Australia and New South Wales have the largest areas of cropland. The limited area suitable for growing commercial crops is limited mainly by climate, because Australia is the world's driest continent.
Annual rainfall of about 20 inches (500 millimeters) is necessary to grow crops successfully without irrigation, less than half of Australia receives this amount, and the rainfall is often variable or unreliable. Years of drought may be followed by severe flooding. High temperatures throughout most of Australia also mean high evaporation rates, so rainfall figures alone are not a good guide to the feasibility of agriculture.
Australian soils usually require the application of fertilizer to grow crops successfully. The east coast of Australia is suitable for growing sugarcane, while the cooler southern parts are suited to growing wheat. Irrigation has opened up large areas of drier land to agriculture, especially for growing fruit, but salinization (the buildup of salt in the soil) has become a major problem in some areas, especially near the mouth of the Murray River. Major agricultural plant exports from Australia are wheat and sugar. Other important agricultural exports are fruits, cotton, rice, and flowers
Wheat
Long the most important crop of Australia, wheat is produced in the Wheat Belt, a crescent of land just west of the Eastern Highlands, or Great Dividing Range, which extends from central Queensland through New South Wales to Victoria, as well as in the south of South Australia and southwest Western Australia.
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Agricultural Products
Cotton is grown in drier interior parts of northern New South Wales and in part of central Queensland.
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