Peter Thompson had an unlikely saviour last year: the humble chickpea.
The crop and cattle farmer grew one paddock – about 200 hectares – of the legume on his property, 80 kilometres north-east of Roma in Queensland's Maranoa region, last year and about 1500 hectares of wheat.
"That chickpea paddock both grossed and netted more than the rest of the whole farming operation," Mr Thompson said.
Favourable weather made 2016 a bumper year for grain growers, with wheat and barley crop yields up by between 45 per cent and 60 per cent, according to data from the Department of Agriculture.
That drove a surge in production that made agriculture one of the standout contributors to the national accounts, helping Australia to 1.1 per cent growth in the December quarter and 2.4 per cent growth in the 2016 calendar year, figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday show.
But global gluts sent cereal prices diving, meaning the three-quarters of Mr Thompson's cropping land dedicated to wheat was "just a hobby" last year, he said, netting him on-farm prices of about $180 a tonne.
"I remember in the late 80s we got excited when wheat got to $180 a tonne, and the late 80s is a long time ago," he said.
Chickpeas came to his rescue by delivering a bumper crop and high export prices, making it one of the best crops in Australian agriculture last year.
"We ended up averaging just on $900 a tonne, and that was our highest ever price," he said.
"Once you get over $700 a tonne it gets pretty exciting and $900 was very exciting in a difficult year. It really is exciting to see that at least someone, somewhere in the world is valuing some of our agricultural produce."
It was a difficult year for chickpea growing, with heavy rain putting the crop at risk of disease and making it inaccessible to machinery for spraying.
Mr Thompson resorted to using a crop duster, a significant expense that ended up being "one of the best decisions we've ever made", he said, with the farm being hit by a downpour eight hours after spraying the crop.
Australia is the world's top chickpea exporter, according to industry group Pulse Australia, with 90 per cent heading overseas, mostly to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Exported Australian chickpeas were fetching between $900 and $1200 a tonne during 2016 compared to between $700 and $900 in 2015, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Total agricultural income – the value of goods produced minus the cost of producing them – was $5.4 billion in the three months to December quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. That was $2.2 billion more than in the same period in 2015 and more than double the 2014 figure of $2.16 billion.
The volume of goods produced by the agriculture sector grew 27 per cent in the 12 months to December last year, driven by the rise in grain, cotton and livestock production, the ABS said.
National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson said it had been a good year for agriculture, with full silos and farmers starting to benefit from better access to export markets.
"The free trade agreements that the government has put in place have finally started to come to fruition and people are starting to have supply chain arrangements in place that can deliver benefits to farmers and people are starting to actually produce for those markets," she said.
Red meat prices had also improved and wool prices were the strongest since 2011, Mrs Simson said.
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