We had significant influence on the state’s wheat yields through developing and promoting the adoption of higher yielding varieties and sustainable farming systems that suit local conditions. Historically, the department has been the main provider of new varieties of dominant export crops. If Western Australian farmers were using the same cropping varieties and technology today, as they were 40 years ago, it is estimated that the state’s crop production would be about a quarter of today’s average yields. Figure 7 shows that there has been a decrease in the rate of crop yield improvement and this is attributed to the very poor 2010 season. It is considered that our long term capacity to increase crop yields is not coping with the climate change observed over the last decade (Figure 8). To remain competitive and improve long term profitability of the sector more research and development is required. Figure 7: Average wheat yields in Western Australia (2007 to 2010) [Accessibility note: The department is aware that image below is not accessible to a screen reader, although descriptive alternative text has been provided for users of assistive technologies. Should you require further information, please contact us via telephone 61 8 9368 3333.] Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and
We had significant influence on the state’s wheat yields through developing and promoting the adoption of higher yielding varieties and sustainable farming systems that suit local conditions. Historically, the department has been the main provider of new varieties of dominant export crops. If Western Australian farmers were using the same cropping varieties and technology today, as they were 40 years ago, it is estimated that the state’s crop production would be about a quarter of today’s average yields. Figure 7 shows that there has been a decrease in the rate of crop yield improvement and this is attributed to the very poor 2010 season. It is considered that our long term capacity to increase crop yields is not coping with the climate change observed over the last decade (Figure 8). To remain competitive and improve long term profitability of the sector more research and development is required. Figure 7: Average wheat yields in Western Australia (2007 to 2010) [Accessibility note: The department is aware that image below is not accessible to a screen reader, although descriptive alternative text has been provided for users of assistive technologies. Should you require further information, please contact us via telephone 61 8 9368 3333.] Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and
Department%20of%20Agriculture%20and%20Food%20Annual%20report%202011%20-%20Word.docx