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According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences around 90 per cent of Australia's cotton is grown in the Murray-Darling Basin.
The major production area in NSW includes the Gwydir, Namoi and Macquarie valleys.
Cotton is also grown along the Barwon and Darling rivers in the west and the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee rivers in the south.
Cotton has caused an economic renaissance in southern NSW, because people are planting it instead of rice. It's much more profitable, reliable, requires less water and producing it creates more jobs.
In Queensland, cotton is grown on the Darling Downs, in St George, Dirranbandi and Macintyre Valley regions and the remainder is grown near Emerald, Theodore and Biloela in central Queensland.
Rice requires more water than cotton to produce a crop (12.6 megalitres per hectare), while fruit and nut trees are not as thirsty (requiring 5.6 megalitres per hectare), and cut flowers and turf use 4.9 megalitres per hectare.
The largest volume of irrigation water was applied to cotton, which used 26 per cent of the national irrigation total for the year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
ABARES figures show irrigated cotton contributed an average of 20 per cent of the total gross value of irrigated agricultural production.
There are anywhere between 1,100 and 1,200 cotton farms in Australia. About half are in New South Wales and the other half in Queensland. This can change depending on seasonal conditions, access to water and prices.
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