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Last update: August 15, 2024

This page contains information about some of the data available in the FEWS NET Data Explorer (FDE) for Australia. This is not a comprehensive guide.

For information about using the filters and fields for specific domains in the FDE, see Choose a Data Domain.

Summary table

ISO 3166-1 codes

Alpha 2: AU, Alpha 3: AUS, Numeric: 36

Administrative units

States

Agricultural seasons

All data is annual, running from October 1 to September 30

Major crops

Wheat, maize

Country context

Statistical reporting units

Australia usually uses administrative units as their statistical reporting units.

Info

Administrative (admin) units are the geographical areas into which a country is divided. FEWS NET uses the following terminology: National boundary = admin 0, First sub-national division = admin 1 (e.g., states in the United States), Second sub-national division = admin 2 (e.g., counties in the United States), and so on.

Admin 1: States.

Crop data

Explore our crop data.

View our documentation on using the Crop Domain.

Crop estimate data sources

The Australian Bureau for Agricultural and Economic Resources Service (ABARES) is the organization charged with evaluating crop production. It publishes 4 Australian Crop Reports per year (March, June, September and December) describing current crop conditions and providing definitive estimates for recent crops, forecasts for current crops, and a running history of crop statistics for each state.

Apart from cotton, the yield for all other crops is a function of quantity divided by the area harvested.

A partner organization working with FEWS NET on this global sub-national agriculture dataset, the Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM) activity, managed by IFPRI, has submitted Australian source documents and crop data that have helped to update the country's record of production.

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Since 1984, the Australian agricultural cropping year runs between October 1 and September 30 (year+1, e.g., October 2023 to September 2024). It is common to refer to Australian cropping years using a two-year format notation (e.g., 2018-2019), but if only one year is mentioned, it refers to the first year of the two, as in XXXX/YYYY = XXXX.

Info

Example: The 2018/2019 cropping year may be described as 2018.

Summer

Summer crops in the Northern Region are planted from September to February (year+1), with harvests from February to May.

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A full description of the crop assessment and forecasting methodology used by ABARES is available in the FDW Mayan Australia cabinet, in the Supporting Documents domain FEWS NET document management system. It is entitled "The Australian Agricultural Forecasting System (AAFS), ABARES, March 2022.

Apart from cotton, the yield for all other crops is a function of quantity divided by the area harvested.