GRAINSTORAGETECHNOLOGYINAUSTRALIA剖析.docVIP

GRAIN STORAGE TECHNOLOGY IN AUSTRALIA Dr Patrick J. Collins Queensland Department of Primary Industries INTRODUCTION In Australia, grain is grown primarily in a narrow crescent running through the south-east and south-west of the mainland. The climate in which grain is grown ranges from the warm, summer rain zone in the north-east to the mild, summer and winter rain zone of the central eastern part of the grain belt to the mild, winter rain zone, which extends across the south-west and southern parts. A broad range of grains are grown including wheat, barley, sorghum, oats, rice, field peas, chick peas, lupins, faba beans and oilseeds and others. However, wheat is by far the most important and valuable crop grown. The annual wheat crop is valued at A$3.1 billion representing 90% of the total value of grain production. By world standards, Australia is a small producer (about 3% of world production) but because of our small population, about 80% of our wheat and barley is exported. Australia accounts for 8-15% of world trade making it the 4th biggest exporter after USA, Canada and European Union. In 1999-2000, Australian grain exports were worth A$5,603 million or 4% of total Australian exports. Production characteristics Compared with other major grain production regions, Australian farms have low yields primarily because of poor soil fertility. Nevertheless, over the past 20 years wheat yields have risen by around 2.35% per year. The amount of land sown to wheat has also increased. National average yield ranges from 1.14 to 2.10 tonnes/hectare, and, production is highly variable as rainfall is very unreliable. There can be massive changes in production levels although changes in area sown may be quite small. For example, wheat production was less than 9.0 10.1 million tonnes in 1982 2002-03 when there was widespread drought, however, production jumped to 22.026.1 million tonnes in the following season when the drought broke. FARM STORAGE In Australia, g