ABSTRACT. Common grazing lands in the northern desert region of Rajasthan (India) are critical sources of fodder supporting livestock maintenance during the ‘Rabi’, or dry season. Two main outputs are procured from these commons: ‘Kejri’ (a tree and shrub based fodder) and pasture-based fodders. The former is more important to poorer small-ruminant owners whilst the latter is more valuable to owners of large ruminants. Recent developments of common grazing lands have generally banned Kejri harvesting providing only for the harvest of grass-based fodder. In order to consider the input-demands for these different fodders by farmers utilising common grazing lands, and resultant impacts of Kejri harvesting bans on poorer farmers, an incentivised field experiment was carried out with Rajasthani small-holder farmers. A multi-attribute utility function was estimated over resultant data incorporating considerations of attribute-level risk preferences, overall risk preferences, elasticity of substitution between fodder and Kejri and correlation aversion. A latent class model allowed consideration of the relative values of the fodder sources for different groups which were compared to asset holdings. Results indicate that banning of Kejri harvesting will likely cause harm to poorer farmers.

ABSTRACT. China is the world’s largest energy producer, consumer and emitter of many major pollutants, creating problems with unprecedented scales and urgency. On the one hand, her weak rule of law often results in ineffective policy enforcement and prevalent non-compliance to witness unacceptable energy-related environmental crises. On the other hand, starting from unfavorable background, China becomes the world’s largest market of renewable energy, rapidly improves energy efficiency and installs pollution control facilities at astonishing rates. This presentation will analyze the enforcement of various energy and environmental policies in China from the perspectives of regulators and polluters, and propose a generalizable theory to explain phenomena and guide efforts.

ABSTRACT. Farmers have a long record in adapting to changing production environment, including unfavourable patterns in climatic outcomes, using various agricultural adaptation practices. Among those, conservation of land and water resources could be seen as a promising adaptation strategy for sustainable agricultural production in the face of changing climate. This paper employs a rich longitudinal dataset from nationally representative sample of households in Vietnam to investigate factors behind rice farmer’s choice to adopt soil and water conservation techniques. Since farmers’ adoption decisions are inherently dynamic, we estimate a dynamic random-effects probit model, controlling for unobserved heterogeneity and state dependence. We find previous adoption decision to be the significant determinant of farmer’s choice to apply conservation practices in the subsequent periods. Additionally, the decision to adopt is strongly influenced by weather shocks, temperature variability, long-run changes in rainfall during the growing season of rice, and their effects are found to be statistically significant. We also find evidence that household size, farm size, and accessing to weather information are associated with households that have decided to apply soil and water conservation. A better understanding farmers’ decision-making process and its drivers are critical for practitioners and policy-makers in order to facilitate climate-resilient strategies to improve smallholders’ adaptive capacity under climatic uncertainty.

ABSTRACT. We develop a detailed representation of bioenergy in a global economy-wide model. We develop a scenario with a global carbon dioxide price, applied to all anthropogenic emissions except those from land-use change, that rises from $25 per metric ton in 2015 to $99 in 2050. This results in global non traditional bioenergy production of ~150 exajoules (EJ) in 2050. By comparison, in 2010 global energy production was primarily from coal (138 EJ), oil (171 EJ) and gas (106 EJ). With this policy, 2050 emissions are 42% less in our Base Policy case than our Reference case, although extending the scope of the carbon price to include emissions from land-use change would reduce 2050 emissions by 52% relative to the same baseline. Our results from various policy scenarios show that lignocellulosic (LC) ethanol may become the major form of bioenergy, if its production costs fall and ethanol blending constraints disappear by 2030; however, if its costs remain higher than expected or the ethanol blend wall continues to bind, bioelectricity and bioheat may prevail. Higher LC ethanol costs may also result in expanded production of first generation biofuels. Deforestation occurs if emissions from land-use change are not priced, although the availability of biomass residues and improvements in crop yields and conversion efficiencies mitigate pressure on land markets. As regions are linked via international agricultural markets, irrespective of the location of bioenergy production, natural forest decreases are largest in regions with the lowest barriers to deforestation. In 2050, the combination of carbon price and bioenergy production increases food prices by 3.2%–5.2%.

ABSTRACT. The Australian continent has the highest solar radiation per square metre in the world yet Australia’s renewable energy production lags behind the global proportional contribution. As of 2014 renewable energy accounted for less than 14 per cent of annual electricity generation in Australia and of this amount, just 0.4 per cent was attributable to large-scale solar power generation. Hence there is significant growth potential for solar energy production in Australia. Grazing land seems well suited for larger-scale solar projects because it offers large tracts of cleared areas with access to sunlight, and particularly so if in proximity to transmission lines and substations. This paper provides an ex-ante cost-benefit evaluation of solar power as an alternative and passive income source for cattle graziers.

ABSTRACT. Livestock systems account for most of the land used in agriculture, with the vast majority of this land in pasture. Due to concern about the environmental effects of changing land use, and expected future demand increases for animal products, it is crucial to understand how these systems will react to future climate change. In addition, the prior focus on raw volumes in the climate impacts literature has potentially given an incomplete measure of the impact of climate change on the value of agricultural products. Using detailed data on the production and quality of milk produced in California, and modern empirical techniques, this paper estimates the nonlinear relationship between weather and dairy production and quality. I find steeply negative impacts on production of increasing temperatures after 15-20°C, and significant, but economically small, negative impacts of increasing temperatures on both fat and solids-not-fat percentage across most of the temperature distribution.

ABSTRACT. Collective decisions that decide its allocation determine land for agricultural productions. The literature shows that there is a negative relationship between rice yield and the distance from the water sources in irrigation agriculture. In this paper, we test this fact with respect to the village irrigation systems in Sri Lanka through stochastic production frontier analysis with a technical inefficiency model and to examine sectoral productive performance and its determinants. The adopted Bethama (share cropping) practice is an ancient system that has been practised during the water deficit agricultural seasons. Primary data was collected from 460 rice farmers in the Kurunegala District to estimate technical efficiency in three sub locations: head-end fields (HEFs), middle fields (MFs) and tail-end fields (TEFs) in the command area. We reject of head-tail syndrome with respect to the village irrigation systems (VISs). TEFs are more productive than HEFs of the command area. The sharecropping system has been instrumental for allocating land either from HEFs or from MFs due to water constraints. However, based on the intra-sectoral efficiency estimation, this haphazard method of allocation cannot be recommended as technically efficient method of rice farming in VISs.

ABSTRACT. The Fitzroy basin is an important cattle producing region in central Queensland for the export of beef and livestock products to South East Asian countries. Continual grazing over many years in the Fitzroy has reduced ground cover and increased the exposure of erosion features to terrestrial water flows, which has resulted in erosion gullies. The run off that results from such soil degradation has led to elevated levels of sediment in the Great Barrier Reef, and this has adversely affected the health of the reef. Strategies to reduce gully erosion include: decreasing stocking rates on grazing land, re-vegetation and remediation of erosion features, and the implementation of infrastructure including fencing and earth works. Using data provided by the Fitzroy Basin Authority, this paper presents a case study of the cost effectiveness of gully remediation at eight sites across the Fitzroy. Our results reveal a broad range of cost effectiveness among the sites, which highlights the importance of both the selection of policy mechanism and the need for targeted remediation measures. The general magnitude of costs may indicate the need to consider alternative policies in order to reduce sediment in the reef.

ABSTRACT. This paper assesses the biodiversity, ecosystem service, and economic impacts of a national initiative around riparian restoration on agricultural land. Using current land use and economic databases, we investigate the national impact of riparian restoration of indigenous vegetation along all permanent waterways in New Zealand. Potential benefits include reduction in threatened environments, expanded habitats for birds, reduced sediment and nutrient run off, bank stability, and carbon sequestration. Costs of the initiative include both the direct costs of planting and the opportunity costs from taking land out of production.

We model several scenarios to assess the sensitivity to buffer widths (5 to 50m) and future economic conditions. Preliminary results suggest that planting a 5m riparian buffer on all permanent waterways could take about 240,000 hectares of agricultural land out of production, while a 50m buffer could eliminate about 2.5 million hectares. We find that the initiative could create large benefits for habitat to support biodiversity, improved water quality through reduction in sediment and nutrient runoff, and a reduction in net GHG emissions. However, these benefits are expected to accrue at cost of $0.1-1.6 billion in lost farm profits per annum depending on the width of the buffer. Ongoing analysis focuses on identifying key areas of New Zealand that could be impacted the most by the national riparian planting initiative, both in terms of total benefits and losses in agricultural production.

ABSTRACT. We review what can usefully be applied from formal economic theories of sustainability – as defined in terms of the utility of a representative agent at a point in time, or in terms of the agent’s welfare (present value of utility over time) or wealth – to the empirical estimation of the sustainability of countries or the world. We note some key theoretical controversies, particularly about sustainability definitions, and about the one-sidedness of the link between aggregate investment (or Genuine Savings) and sustainability. But our main focus is on how real-world conditions, such as the externality from global warming and the non-constancy of the population growth rate, break the conditions for any of the theories to hold; so that (for example) the World Bank’s empirical, Genuine-Savings-based measure of sustainability contains hitherto unrecognised errors. Using Nordhaus’s DICE-2013 global climate-economy model, we calibrate new, approximate error correction terms that make Genuine Savings results more closely compatible with theory, though we stress that exact theoretical compatibility is unattainable.

ABSTRACT. Conservation auctions are an important policy tool to secure environmental services and protect biodiversity on private lands. This paper studies the performance of auctions for securing wildlife corridors across different holdings. This requires coordination of conservation efforts among multiple landholders. We are particularly interested in assessing the impact of alternative design features (i.e. pricing scheme and bid selection criteria) on the cost-effectiveness of the auction mechanism. We compare three pricing schemes: a discriminatory-price auction, a uniform-price ascending auction and a fixed offer scheme as benchmark, and two bid selection criteria: based on total bid and based on bid per value ratio. Discriminatory-price auction is implemented in the context of group bidding where the groups solve an optimal bidding model and submit bids on individual corridors. In the uniform-price ascending auction, individual landholders respond to prices and whenever the first corridor is formed the auction stops. Winning bidders receive a uniform price. In a fixed offer scheme landholders respond positively if the offer at least covers their opportunity costs of participation. In all cases, the corridor with the lowest bid (either based on total bid or bid per value ratio) is selected. Based on numerical simulations we observe that a discriminatory-price auction with group bidding is more cost-effective than an ascending uniform-price auction. However, discriminatory pricing may result in fewer proposals being received, and in some cases it may fail altogether. Interestingly, project selection based on total bid has generated higher conservation value per bid than selection based on bid per value ratio. We discuss the policy implication of these findings.

ABSTRACT. Women’s empowerment is considered a “prerequisite” to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Gender systems, however, are diverse and complex. The nature and extent of gender inequality and the conditions necessary to empower women vary across countries, communities and regions. Although the status of women in agriculture has received extensive attention in the literature, a research gap persists regarding the state of gender equality in Southeast Asian agriculture. In 2014, FAO and IFPRI compiled the current state of gender research in agriculture in the book titled ‘Gender in Agriculture: Closing the Knowledge Gap’. An evaluation of the book points out that a majority of the empirical studies focused on Sub Saharan Africa (59%) and South Asia (22%).The current paper contributes to the geographical scope of the literature by presenting empirical evidence of gender equity from four Southeast Asian countries: Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. Using the framework recommended by the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), 37 focus group discussions were conducted with 290 women farmers in the abovementioned countries. The results reveal regional trends that contradict the conventional narratives of gender equality in agriculture. In all four countries, women appeared to have equal access to productive resources and a greater control over household income than men. Important intra-regional heterogeneity was observed in terms of community level empowerment. Women played an active role in agricultural groups in Thailand and the Philippines. In Indonesia and Myanmar, this was predominantly men’s territory. These findings imply that a region specific gender intervention framework is necessary to effectively address gender gaps in different countries.

ABSTRACT. Peru’s fishing industry has historically been a key component of the country’s economy, especially because of the economic importance of the anchovy (Peruvian anchovy Engraulis ringens) fisheries playing an important role in the Peruvian economy. Currently, anchovy is to a very large extent used as raw material for fishmeal and fish oil for exports, causing overexplotaition of the resource. Despite the fact that achovy is incredibly healthy, Peruvians consumption is very low because generally people belief that anchovy is inedible. In this sense, the identification of the principal factors considered by fresh anchovy non consumers would allow to explain its low consumption. A survey was taken between April and September 2015 in the Metropolitan area of Lima. The structured questionnaire involved interviews with 128 fish consumers. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to assess fish consumers’ underlying opinions. The results revealed that decisions to not consume anchovy were mainly influenced by factors such as being a non-commercial product and lack of markets to find this type of fish; texture judgement and cleaning difficulty; tedious bones and smelling; preparation difficulty and finally, strong taste and unattractive appearance of the anchovy. These findings may have considerable implications on production and marketing decisions as well in light of economic development in the country. Improved access and promotion of large scale marketing campaigns by the government, should aim at reinforcing the idea of high nutritional value of the Peruvian anchovy by increasing its consumption.

ABSTRACT. Various analytical approaches to the concept of value chains are present in the literature from agricultural economics, international development, and business administration, including inter alia research on supply chains (SC); global commodity chains (GCC); international production networks (IPN) (Belussi & Sammara 2009); sustainable value chain analysis (SVCA) (Soosay et al. 2012); global value chains (GVC), global production networks (GPN) and global innovation networks (GIN) (Parrilli et al. 2013). Most of these approaches are qualitative and descriptive, highlighting the relationships inherent in the value chain, but with little use of quantitative rigor in their analysis. At the same time, there is an important research need to enhance value chain analysis from qualitative, descriptive narratives of marketing systems toward dynamic quantitative methods that offer robust ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of policy interventions and feedbacks amongst chain actors. The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of system dynamics (SD) when combined with other analytical methods in a value chain setting. This contributes to the development of an integrated conceptual value chain framework that can be applied to a variety of agricultural and agribusiness case studies. Preliminary results of this study show promise in this area. In particular, other analytical methods can complement SD through the use of statistical and econometric methods to estimate SD model parameters, while conversely SD model outputs can be used in cost-benefit and various statistical and econometric analyses. Applications of this hybrid approach are discussed with reference to specific policy issues and opportunities encountered in selected value chains such as red meat, crop, dairy, and aquaculture.

ABSTRACT. At 21.3 million head, Tanzania has one of the largest cattle populations in Africa. Cattle make significant contribution to the economy of Tanzania, particularly to rural people. This paper examines opportunities for raising cattle producers’ incomes by way of intensification of production systems. The Majority (97%) of cattle herds in Tanzania consist of non-dairy indigenous breeds that are of low productivity in respect of milk production. We analyze the dairy value chain in Tanzania’s Kilosa district to offset challenges encountered by producers in an extensive dairy system. These include unproductive cows, small milk volumes and limited market access. We employ a whole-chain system dynamics model to examine scenarios of production practice and market access. This approach allows for multi-period analysis (accommodating cattle’s long generation interval) and the examination of feedbacks between market outcomes and management decisions (an essential dynamic that is missed by budget-based analysis). Preliminary results show that improved production practice (artificial insemination) and marketing (cooperative hubs) improve smallholder producers’ access to local and regional markets which in turn improves their livelihoods and reduces vulnerability. However, the benefits of interventions are fully realized only when interventions at market and supply side are applied simultaneously. No significant gains are realized when interventions are applied separately.

ABSTRACT. Australia has a long standing donor history in supporting economic development and poverty reduction in Fiji. During the last 5 years the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) funded an innovative $12 million dollar project entitled ‘Pacific Agribusiness Research for Development Initiative’ (PARDI) which aimed to provide an evidence base via research for aid and policy interventions. Agriculture and subsistence farming generate income for approximately 65% of the Fijian population (National Agricultural Census Report 2009) which prompted a study within PARDI to better understand the industry’s structure, recent changes and the potential implications for livelihoods and food security. To undertake this study a value chain analysis (VCA) framework was chosen. VCA was initially developed to identify improvements along individual value chains but has evolved into a useful tool for understanding industry networks and providing policy and developmental aid insights (Gereffi & Lee 2012; Trienekens 2011). The activities undertaken in collaboration with our Fijian partners involved comprehensive surveys of 1000 urban households, 1200 producers, 85 traders and interviews with all major supermarkets, resorts and food processors across Fiji. One of the key insights uncovered by the study was how local consumers are changing their food buying patterns and the potential implications of this for smallholder farmers under the current industry value chain structure. The benefits of this type of insight along the entire value chain is how multiple stakeholders can use this information for the purpose of improving the development of the agricultural industry in Fiji, thus validating VCA for this type of research.

ABSTRACT. In the light of on-going debates about the sustainable agricultural intensification and sustainable development paradigms, this paper examined the linkages between integrated aquaculture-agriculture (IAA) value chain participation dynamics and the welfare of marginalized extremely poor indigenous households using a three-wave household panel dataset from Bangladesh. The distributional effect of IAA participation was also investigated by examining impacts across different value chain actors. We applied pooled Ordinary Least Squares, Random-Effects, and Standard Fixed-Effects, Heckit panel, and control function approaches to control for endogeneity of IAA participation and unobserved heterogeneity. We found that IAA value chain participation is positively correlated with household income, expenditure and the consumption frequency of certain goods, especially fish consumption, and the benefits continue to accrue after discontinuing participation in the value chain. The results reveal that IAA value chain participation has higher impacts on the welfare of relatively wealthier households involved in production related IAA value chain activities than on landless, extremely poor households that were involved in upstream and downstream IAA value chain activities.

ABSTRACT. Expanding a broadcare farm business is known to be risky. The usual way a farm business expands is by buying out a neighbour, using bank lending that requires a mortgage on the home farm. The farmer then hopes for sufficiently favourable seasons and prices to then pay off the debt. But are there other things farmers can do to expand more safely, and be less exposed to the adversity of seasons, costs and prices. In Australian broadacre farming where greater climatic adversity is projected for some regions, reliance solely on bank finance for the capital required for expansion may become increasingly problematic and new approaches to funding the balance sheet might be necessary. This paper outlines the effective use of a low input strategy employed by one farmer in the Western Australian wheatbelt to substantially reduce the business risk during the testing years following a large expansion of their farm business. Farm financial modelling draws on validated crop growth simulation modelling (APSIM) to assess the merits of a low-input approach. When various performance metrics are applied, such as farm profit and peak debt, over a range of seasons the low input strategy substantially reduces the risk of expansion during the vulnerable post-expansion period.

ABSTRACT. Despite the increasing economic and ecological significance of wheat production in Australia, statistics reveal significant spatial and temporal variability. Identifying the sources of instability may provide valuable insight for future strategies to reduce or offset the effects of instability. Accordingly, we applied variance decomposition procedures to historical production data on wheat production to analyse the sources of the instability. We found that the instability of Australia’s wheat production in recent decades has not been reduced significantly in the past century, however the source of this instability has differed. Changes in average sowing area contributes over 60% of instability and has been the dominant source of unstable production in all decades except the 1950s and 1990s. Instability in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia is similarly dominated by changes in average sowing area, whereas in South Australia and Victoria, the contribution of yield is higher although area remains the main source of instability. Across all states, there is a trend of increasing contribution to instability from yield. Analysis of shire level data in New South Wales reveals that the instability of wheat production tends to be caused primarily by variable sowing area in the west part of the wheat belt and yield variability in the east, however there is no fixed pattern evident at different decades.

ABSTRACT. The recent Millennium Drought, the longest and most exacting on record, severely affected Australia’s ‘food bowl’ - the Murray Darling Basin. Given Australia’s disadvantaged positioning in the world’s climate system, the unprecedented nature of the Millennium Drought, the importance of agriculture sector in the Australian economy, and the anticipation of worse droughts in the future, attention needs to be paid to this topic area. In this research, we explore the economic consequences of the drought for farming communities with a particular focus on the production decisions, unemployment outcomes, and financial status of the households. We also look at social impacts through family engagements and individuals’ experience. We conduct literature review on the adjustment strategies commonly adopted by farmers faced with livelihood threats, the strategies are clustered into groups such as input-related strategies, output-related strategies, off-farm strategies, land-related strategies, technology- and investment-related strategies, and finance-related strategies. Using the 2013 Regional Wellbeing Survey, we then analyse how and to what extent the adjustments chosen by surveyed farmers have helped them adjust to adversity as measured through changes in their profitability. This is ongoing research, the findings of which will be presented at the conference with a view of providing a better understanding of farmers’ experience and responses to the drought and ultimately, to formulate future policy responses.

ABSTRACT. A number policies and extension programs have aimed to encourage Indonesian farmers to adopt alternative ‘higher value’ crops and farming systems in order to increase their profitability. Adoption rates of these innovations have been generally low – yet, this is not a situation that is unique to Indonesia, nor is it a new finding. Many researchers have attempted to understand the relationship between farmer and household characteristics and adoption of agricultural innovations. However, no known study has examined the relationship between the attributes of the innovation, farmer characteristics and actual adoption behaviour in the context of non-conventional farming systems. This study, uses data from a survey and best-worst scaling experiment completed by over 650 smallholder shallot farm households in Indonesia to understand the drivers of and barriers to adoption of non-conventional farming systems. A Latent Class Cluster Analysis is used to explore whether farmers’ preferences for innovation attributes are heterogeneous. The results suggest that when considering whether or not to adopt a crop or farming system, the most important attributes to smallholders (on average) are related to higher yields and profit, and the least important attributes are labour and water requirements. Attitudes towards innovation characteristics are heterogeneous and socio-demographic characteristics and adoption behaviour help explain the segments.

ABSTRACT. This paper provides a guide to the theory and practice of using a new Intensive Farming (IF) model to quantify and compare the risks associated with the current management of farming businesses in southern Australia and from changes in their management. Advice to farmers is typically based on expected average production and average prices, without the effects of weather and price risk, or of debt. Such advice will tend to be more optimistic than advice accounting for these hazards. The chosen examples illustrate the importance of including the combined sources of risk (weather and prices of inputs and products) with regard to their cumulative effects over time. The model illustrates the potential for debt to be magnified through time in the presence of negative yield and price outcomes.

Risk is an essential feature of farm management in Australia; the IF model provides a framework and methodology for quantifying that risk. Furthermore it has the potential to be used to design and test: a) whole farm models; b) long term effects on the viability and resilience of these management systems at the strategic; and c) to a limited extent, the tactical (within season) levels.

ABSTRACT. A difficult question for scientists and farm advisors over the past 80 years in rain-fed crop-pasture rotations has been whether to recommend sowing a perennial pasture either directly (alone) or under a cereal cover crop. With the biological results being different each season depending on the weather, agronomists have not been confident to recommend one method over the other. Which of these pasture establishment methods yields the best economic results is likewise unclear. This presents a practical Farm Financial Risk problem.

Our initial findings are based on four years of field experimental results (2008 to 2012) along a North-South transect from Ariah Park to Brocklesby, NSW. Analysis of these results with information on local weather and price variations using “The Intensive Farming (IF) model” (Hutchings & Nordblom, 2015) suggests the following: (1) direct sowing is a more reliable method of establishing lucerne (Medicago sativa) pastures than under sowing with a cover crop; (2) the additional costs of direct seeding, however, are barely met by its increased productivity compared with lucerne pastures sown under cover-crops; and (3) that lucerne pastures are more profitable than annual pastures over the full range of likely stocking rates. Failure of adequate lucerne establishment in a paddock, if not re-sown in the subsequent year, typically results in reversion to less-profitable annual pasture in that paddock. These results and their financial consequences are developed and described in this paper using the IF Model.

ABSTRACT. Monte Carlo simulation of alternative farm systems was undertaken to account for price, production and financial risks. Firstly, the assumptions about cost drivers for individual cost categories are shown to significantly affect the results, particularly with respect to labour. Secondly, the distribution of returns is seen to be strongly affected by distributional assumptions on prices, particularly the milk price. Thirdly, the impact of properly specifying the correlation components between the different sources of risk is also shown to significantly affect the results. Finally, resiliency is modelled through a multi-year distribution of cash surplus, where a number of years with negative cashflow represents a real risk of entering solvency and liquidity problems.

ABSTRACT. This project is now part of PhD research being undertaken by one of the awardees of the 2015 Australia Awards training program Policy Development for Livestock Production and Supply Chains in the Indonesian beef industry. The project combines studies in animal science technology with economics. There are two artificial insemination (AI) centres in Indonesia that essentially supply the same product and compete in the same market throughout Java. This project involves an assessment of the quality of the semen the AI centres supply and will involve a survey of dairy farmer customers in five areas in East Java regarding their satisfaction with the centres’ products. There is an opportunity to introduce technology observed in Australia to improve quality of the semen distributed in Indonesia and because semen can be produced more cheaply in Indonesia, there may be an opportunity to collaborate with Australian artificial breeding centres to export semen to other Africa and Asian countries, including Thailand, Malaysia and China. At this early stage in the research, paper will include background information on the dairy industry in Java, describe the organisation and operation of the country’s two AI centres, describe the technology that could be introduced from Australia, and outline the farm survey.

ABSTRACT. Adoption of farm innovations may increase farm productivity, and therefore improve market access and farm incomes. However, most studies that look at the level and drivers of innovation adoption only focus on a specific type of innovation. Farmers may consider multiple innovation options, and constraints such as budget, environment, scarcity of labour supply, and the cost of learning. There have been some studies proposing different methods to combine a broad variety of innovations into a single measurable index. However, little has been done to compare these methods and assess whether they provide similar information about farmer segmentation by their ‘innovativeness’. Using data from a recent survey of 220 dairy farm households in West Java, Indonesia, this study compares and considers different methods of deriving an innovation index, including expert-weighted innovation index (Läpple et al. 2015); an index derived from the total number of adopted technologies (Karafillis and Papanagiotou 2010); and an index of the extent of adoption of innovation taking into account both adoption and disadoption of multiple innovations (Fita et al. 2012). Second, it examines the distribution of different farming systems taking into account their innovativeness and farm characteristics. Results from this study will inform policy makers and stakeholders in the dairy industry on how to better design, target and deliver programs to improve and encourage farm innovation, and therefore improve farm productivity and the performance of the dairy industry in Indonesia.

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ABSTRACT. In Indonesia, as in other Asian countries, income growth, combined with improved consumer health awareness has led to growing demand for animal-based protein such as dairy products. However, there has been a widening gap between domestic milk production and consumption. To increase national milk production, previous studies and development projects have identified the need to continue to promote programs improving adoption of on-farm innovations such as the use of high protein concentrate and artificial insemination. However, research examining the impact of technology adoption on productivity and efficiency in the dairy farm is still limited in Indonesia. This paper aims to measure the effect of technology adoption on productivity and technical efficiency of dairy farm using Stochastic Frontier Analysis using data from a structured survey of 228 dairy households in West Java Province. To address the self-selection bias in the choice of production technology, we perform the propensity score matching (PSM) method in the first stage of the analysis following Mayen et al. (2010). Results from this study will inform constraints faced by dairy households in technology adoption and its impact on productivity and efficiency. This can be useful for Indonesian government to formulate strategies in increasing local milk production.

ABSTRACT. Nitrogen (N) is the most limiting nutrient in intensive pasture-based dairy systems in Australia. To-date, decisions regarding N have relied mostly on generalised rules based on average pasture responses to applied N. In this paper, a new web-based application called the Dairy Nitrogen Fertiliser Advisor (the ‘N-Advisor’) is presented. Marginal analysis and profit-maximising principles are used to assist dairy farmers and their advisors when they are considering how much N to apply to a particular paddock for a particular grazing rotation. The tool embodies rigorously defined response functions for pasture dry matter consumption that can be expected from the range of possible applications of N. These are based on dry matter yield responses of pasture to N fertiliser derived from 65 N fertiliser experiments undertaken across Australia over the past 40 years (which equate to nearly 6,000 data sets for N fertiliser - pasture yield response). A response function for the relevant region and season is calibrated by the decision-maker to the area of pasture to which the N fertiliser is to be applied. Nitrogen fertiliser recommendations developed using the N-Advisor incorporate the marginal product derived from the calibrated response function, the costs of the fertiliser (as applied) and the value of the extra pasture consumed. The N-Advisor allows users to perform what-if analyses, such as exploring the effect on the profit maximising level of N of changing the capital cost of N fertiliser applied, or changing the value of the dry matter consumed. The N-Advisor also enables risk associated with production outcomes to be taken into account.

ABSTRACT. Environment Southland is required to set water quality limits under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater. A significant component of this will involve reduction of nutrient losses from farms to improve water quality. The mitigations required will have economic impacts for farmers and may change the way they farm. This paper discusses the methodology, assumptions and potential economic impacts of reducing nitrogen loss and phosphorous runoff on Southland dairy farms. Overseer and Farmax modelling for 41 Southland dairy farms was conducted across four zones (FMUs), possibly one of the largest modelling projects undertaken for nutrient loss in New Zealand . The proposal for the future development of an Economic model for the Southland region will be discussed.

ABSTRACT. Environment Southland (ES) is working to set water quality and quantity limits throughout the Southland Region in response to the Government’s National Policy Statement on Freshwater. Policies that restrict nutrient loss from dairy farms are likely to negatively impact on dairy farm profitability. Changes in dairy land values have traditionally been driven by changes in profitability, although some lags exist. Therefore there is a risk for limits to impact on rural land values. Nutrient loss regulations that vary across the region based on factors such as soil type may have differing impacts on dairy farm land values, with some land becoming relatively more desirable. The impacts on land values of meeting nutrient loss restrictions have rarely been researched in New Zealand. This project analyses the drivers of dairy farm land value as well as the relationship between the present value of dairy farm land and operating profit and how reduced future earnings may impact land values. It was designed to help ES understand the potential impacts of water quality policies on dairy farm land values, ultimately assisting in designing policies that will create sustainable economic, environmental and social objectives.

ABSTRACT. The choice of public policies that triggers private investment and contributes in agricultural transformation and poverty alleviation remains a challenging policy question. The puzzle is how to allocate public resources in social and economic sectors and farm subsidies for improving agricultural productivity, reducing poverty and inequalities. While farmers’ investment decisions largely depend on access to markets, price signals and available incentives, state creates an enabling environment for inducing private investment, accelerating productivity and expanding market opportunities through appropriate policies, institutions and infrastructure. While state policies through different types of public investments contribute to production growth and poverty reduction, the role of these investments to regional and secctoral inequalities is not known with certainty. This study is responding to these issues by comparing the magnitude of public investments on economic and social services across states, having initiated policy reforms pro-actively or continued with a lackadaisical approach within their agricultural sector. It quantifies the relative effect of different types of social and economic investments on agricultural growth and regional inequality in rural areas. The results are obtained for a period from 1981-82 to 2013-14 based on regression based approach for decomposing income inequality due to various types of private and public investments. The inter-state comparison provides the role of public policies under different socio-economic environments on agricultural productivity, rural poverty and income inequality. It also provides empirical evidence for prioritizing public investment decisions to rapidly transform agriculture and maximize welfare gains with limited resources.

Keywords

Public policies, public and private investment, agricultural productivity, rural poverty, regional inequalities 

ABSTRACT. This paper explored the effects of farmers’ cultural practices on farm production and household income of coffee farmers in Timor Leste. A survey of 503 farming households was conducted in the main coffee‐growing regions of Timor Leste in 2008‐2009. Using an endogenous switching regression model, the study found that there are significant differences in the effects of household and farm-level characteristics on coffee production between farming households practising and not practising cultural activities (i.e., Estilo or coffee harvesting celebrations). Results showed that yield reduces significantly if the male-headed households practice Estilo. For the non-practicing households, the household head’s age and household size have positive and significant effects on yield. Also, significant differences in coefficient estimates of the impacts on household income of access to markets and access to finance were found between the regimes of practicing and non-practicing households. Households who have better access to markets are less likely to celebrate traditional ceremonies than others. Moreover, the more constrained they are by access to capital, the more likely households are to celebrate cultural practices. The differences in the effects indicate that cultural practices have adverse effects on productivity and household income of coffee farming households in Timor Leste.

ABSTRACT. Vegetable farming in the Philippines is conducted by roughly 5.7 million households, 80% of which earn a meagre monthly income of US$65 from this livelihood. Reliance on this income could barely cover the households’ basic needs since this is far below than the estimated 2014 (first semester) monthly poverty threshold of a family of five at roughly US$192. This performance necessitates an investigation on the roles played by and incentives driving actors in both the production and marketing sectors in the smallholder segment of the vegetable industry. To address this objective, the following will be examined: a) RA 7160 or the law which gave autonomy to local government units; b) implementation of government interventions in the current government structure; c) evolving stock of social capital in the community; and, d) production and marketing decisions made by the vegetable smallholders and the relationship of these decisions with the government structure and interventions and social capital. The qualitative and quantitative analyses are based on data sourced from the focus group discussions, secondary data, and survey with 208 vegetable producers. Although RA7160 provides an enabling environment for the smallholder vegetable industry and government interventions, the results suggest that there are some improvements that have to be made on the implementation of some of the law provisions pertaining to community empowerment and linkage of government units with other stakeholders. In addition, the evolution on the stock and nature of social capital also depends on the level of perishability and market destination of a crop.

ABSTRACT. The beef cattle production system in Botswana is dualistic in structure in that it includes both traditional and commercial production systems which are distinct from one another in terms of objectives, land tenure, technology and management practices. The purpose of this paper is to measure the key performance indicators of beef cattle production systems in Botswana and explore their drivers. We examine differences in productivity and production technologies between the two beef production systems. The results show that traditional farms are technically inefficient and that their technology lags behind that of commercial farms. The use of improved breeds, off-take rates and selling to the Botswana Meat Commission (the only exporting abattoirs in Botswana) were found to improve technical efficiency in the commercial production system, but only off-take rates had a positive effect on efficiency in the traditional production system. Both farming systems have the potential to overcome technology constraints and achieve the highest attainable productivity level through improvements in; beef cattle technologies, farmer capacity in production and marketing, and the effectiveness of the technology transfer process.

ABSTRACT. In developing countries, markets are inefficient in term of information exchanges between producers and consumers which is one of the prerequisites for prices to act as signal for resource allocation in an economy. In case of vegetables, information on quality traits are often difficult for consumers to obtain prior to purchase, resulting in market failures for food safety. The market for vegetables contaminated with pesticides residues in Pakistan appears to be one of these markets. This study attempts to estimate information efficiency in the vegetable market by comparing the quality of vegetable produced across a representative sample of 360 farmers in Pakistani Punjab, the main vegetable growing province. Chromatography technique is employed to quantify pesticide residues—a quality trait that is generally unobservable by the consumer— in four major vegetables i.e., okra, spinach, cauliflower and brinjal. All the vegetable samples are found to be contaminated and among these 37% exceeded the maximum residues limits. Econometric analysis shows that magnitudes of pesticide residues in vegetables vary with pesticide intensity and frequency, wastewater irrigation and climatic factors. To test market efficiency, vegetable prices are observed to be negatively correlated with pesticides residues. Proper implementation of food safety standards and farmers’ encouragement to use integrated pest management practices could help to provide safe vegetables to consumers.

ABSTRACT. Livestock sector which contributes 50% of Afghanistan's agricultural GDP has been dwindling and showing insignificant growth in the post-conflict period. Institutions have to play crucial role to rejuvenate different sectors integrated with rural development. This paper presents the impact of a community participated goat restocking strategy that resulted in the establishment of a sustainable social institution “Pass-on-the gift” and providing opportunities to alleviate poverty for participants in the IFAD funded Dairy Goat Project implemented in Baghlan and Nangarhar provinces. Each participant who received two kidded goats from the project returned one yearling goat from among the kid goats borne after one year to the village communities. Goats distributed through project then onwards become the property of the participant. The community then distribute two yearling goats collected from the first stage beneficiaries, to a new beneficiary who was not provided with goats through the project. This process is expected to continue for three generations after the distribution of project goats. All 970 participant families who are restocked with two goats each since 2010 have been participating in the Pass-on-the gift process and handed over 663 goats to the community for further distribution to 415 new beneficiary families till 2015 indicating 70% success. By 2016, distribution of pregnant goats and Pass on the Gift process is estimated to produce an asset with a net present value of USD 1.28 million on the initial project investment of USD 0.25 million. This process has been institutionalized and helping the poor communities to come out of poverty by raising small flocks of goats.

ABSTRACT. Agriculture is often represented as a case study in perfect competition, with a large number of small price-taking producers choosing an optimal input mix from a simple production function to maximize profits. Entrepreneurship and innovation do not seem to enter into this story, and nor do institutions. But this characterization misrepresents the complexity and niche competition in agricultural markets and the opportunities for cooperation. Old models of innovation policy emphasized market failure (Arrow 1962) and recommended more or less direct government support to fund R&D investment. Examples were public funding of agricultural science.

But new approaches to economics of innovation emphasise the role of entrepreneurial or market (rather than technical) discovery (Hausmann and Rodrik 2004), and the increasing use of private institutions to solve the innovation problem through pooling innovation resources in the ‘commons’ (Hess and Ostrom 2007, Allen and Potts 2015). This shift from market failure to collective action models of the innovation problem, and from government solutions to governance solutions, represents a fundamental shift in modern economic thinking about how industries grow through entrepreneurship and innovation, and the role of government in this process.

ABSTRACT. Regional Agricultural and Trade Policies: an Indian perspective

ABSTRACT. Marine spatial optimization models can be used to determine the optimal allocation of seascapes amongst management zones to maximise fisheries production while meeting biodiversity targets. Different management zones can include fishing, recreation, and no-take reserve areas. However, scientists and the general public will have different preferences for biodiversity (Rogers et al. 2013). This implies that expert-driven planning approaches may not attract the necessary public support to achieve biodiversity objectives. In this analysis we elicit spatially explicit non-market values for marine ecological features from stakeholders at an Australian case study area. We combine this non-market valuation data with other benefit and cost data for the area including marine species’ abundance and habitat type, recreational fishing demand and fisheries catch. All data is analysed using a spatial optimization model to determine the optimal spatial allocation of the study area to maximise fisheries catch while meeting biodiversity targets. By incorporating market, non-market and ecological values the analysis aims to reconcile stakeholder preferences for marine spatial planning with ‘expert-driven’ ecological priorities.

ABSTRACT. In 2012, Japan’s energy self-sufficiency rate was just six percent, and it is substantially lower than the other OECD countries. In order to secure a stable supply of energy, alternative to imported energy sources need to be developed. In Japan Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme started in July 2012. Under the FIT, electric utilities will be obliged to purchase electricity generated from renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaics and wind power on a fixed-period contract at a fixed price. The expectation is that renewable energy will serve as an alternative energy source and help contribute to increasing energy self-sufficiency. In this paper, we perform an economic analysis of the investment under the FIT for photovoltaic power generation facilities on the abandoned agricultural land in Hokkaido, Japan. The economic analysis is carried out by calculating for the net present value, the internal rate of return and the payback period of the investment.

ABSTRACT. Traditionally, ecological restoration activities and projects have been targeted, prioritised and planned using only ecological considerations. Restoration scientists and practitioners have recently begun to include economic and social aspects in the design of restoration projects. With few exceptions, ecological restoration studies that include economics focus on evaluating costs of restoration projects. However, economic principles and tools can contribute to restoration projects more broadly by assisting in planning and implementation of the projects and revealing factors that affect their acceptance and uptake. This could help improving effectiveness and efficiency of ecological restoration and increase overall success of the projects. In this paper, we consider the application of economics to the key challenges of ecological restoration: assessing benefits, estimating costs, prioritising projects, and long-term financing. We discuss the nature of the challenges and identify what economic principles and tools could be potentially used to tackle these challenges as well as improve conservation schemes more broadly.

ABSTRACT. New Zealand's current freshwater management system is becoming inadequate to deal with the growing demand. There is little understanding with regard to the value of residential water consumption. In some regions, New Zealanders pay an annual rate for different services (including water supply) based on their property value; otherwise, people has been charged based on an uniform block tariff scheme. These structures cannot persuade people to conserve water. Hence, this research attempts to quantify the value of freshwater. In order to find an exact amount of water consumption for each household, an Agent-Based Modelling System (ABMs) developed. By an ABM, we can evaluate the effect of different pricing scenarios on water demand. The other objectives of this research are focusing on the most significant water demand drivers and do forecasting by an ABM. Using Geographical Information System (GIS) from Waikato District, helps us capturing household characteristics (e.g. age, gender, income, job status, qualification and religious). For the purpose of this research, cross-sectional data from 10,000 properties were collected from 2013 Census Meshblock Dataset- Statistics New Zealand. Applying information from meshblock enables us to apply an ABM model to simulate household water consumption and hence forecast it accurately. Combination of an ABM, GIS and simulation approach is an useful methodology to deal with the complexity of household water use pattern. The results can enable simulating any various water demand scenarios and it indicates that, socio-economics determinants affect household water use, significantly.

ABSTRACT. This study presents results of a text based exploratory analysis of nearly 2,000 academic articles published in Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics and Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics from 1957–2015. We use Latent Dirichlet Allocation method to investigate the research foci of these Journals and tease out the trends in the research topics. Other results such as the change in number and institutions of co-authors and the most influential articles are presented.

ABSTRACT. The Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) has invested over AU$38.6 million in upgrading multiple municipal sewerage treatment plants (STPs) in New South Wales (NSW) during the 11 years (2002-2013) through its Accelerated Sewerage Program (ASP). Out of ten datasets, submitted by the participating municipal councils, four corresponding to a representative sample of these STPs were analysed, comparing Nitrogen and Phosphorous concentrations before and after. The upgrades had no significant effect on Nitrogen concentration. Phosphorous concentration was significantly reduced in three of the four plants after the upgrade. A cost curve was constructed comparing operation, maintenance and management (OMA) costs with plant capacity equivalent population (EP). Scale economy was found, as OMA cost tends to reduce for every additional unit of plant capacity. Multiple recommendations regarding data collection methodologies and upgrade criteria are given in this poster.

ABSTRACT. A transition from conventional farm management to modern corporate management is a pressing challenge for Japanese rice farming as it needs to address changes in policy and market as well as in small scale production. The number of agricultural corporations has recently increased with approximately 17,000 corporations as of 2010 in Japan. In particular, rice farming corporations accounted for one-quarter of all agricultural corporations. However, corporatisation of farms is not always accompanied by modernisation in farm management, and a theoretical and empirical investigation into ways of farm modernisation is required. In this study, we examine farm modernisation, particularly focusing on time, economic and functional management. Modelling farm modernisation, drawing on data from a survey of Japanese rice farming corporations in 2014 and 2015 and analysing by structural equation modelling, reveals critical elements for farm modernisation, such as production systems, business management systems and managers’ capabilities. Results of this study can be used to improve farm practices on the level of management and provide policy ideas for further development of the modern corporate management.

ABSTRACT. Kondo, Sasaki, Shin and Yamamoto (2012) conducted productivity convergence analysis for Korean rice sector across its domestic regions using the conventional multilateral productivity index. However, the conventional multilateral productivity index they used has assumed that producers operate under constant returns to scale (CRS) technology. Scale of economies in Korean rice sector is one of the most important issues in order to improve Korean rice productivity. Kondo, Sasaki, Shin and Yamamoto (2013) relaxed such a restrictive assumption of CRS and propose a new multilateral productivity index taking into account variable returns to scale (VRS). This new multilateral productivity index yielded the multilateral input-based productivity (MIBP) index and the multilateral output-based productivity (MOBP) index. They applied both the MIBP and MOBP indices to panel dataset for rice sector in Korea. In this study, we take into account VRS in Korean rice sector and re-examine rice productivity convergence across Korean regions using the results of regional MIBP and MOBP of Korean rice sector by Kondo, Sasaki, Shin and Yamamoto (2013).

ABSTRACT. This study aimed to examine factors influencing consumers’ willingness to pay for green food, comparing between rural and urban buyers in Thailand. Questionnaires were collected from 377 respondents in Nan province and Bangkok. Organic rice and sunflower sprouts were selected as samples to measure buyers’ behaviour towards the purchase of green food and examine relationships between their willingness to pay for healthy foods and consumers’ characteristics. The study found that factors influencing consumers’ purchasing behaviours included consumers’ socioeconomic status, attitudes, and their budget constraint; whereas, food safety was a major concern in purchasing food products in both areas of study. Thus, attitudes and perceptions towards healthy food were important for sustainable green markets in both areas. The results suggested that quality, price, usefulness, packaging, marketing, and promotion were crucial factors in increasing consumers’ satisfactions. Sustainable food consumptions can be identified by productions and socio-demographics. While a primary consideration in purchasing green food products in Nan province was an convenience, in which direct marketing and traditional fresh market were more preferable than in Bangkok; consumers in urban areas like Bangkok were motivated to buy green products by perceptions of health benefits.

ABSTRACT. This is a paper about resilience from the perspective of real options analysis. We show how new developments in the application of real options analysis to questions of optimal timing can be used to more clearly define and measure the concept of economic resilience. We show how economic resilience differs from alternative resilience concepts and provide a mathematical framework that can be used to evaluate the resilience of an economic regime. This perspective on economic resilience is important because the thresholds between alternative regimes can be characterized as decision thresholds, we can use concepts of probability that incorporate time, and we can summarize the expected time to a threshold without requiring a system to have stable attractors. This means that the approach is relevant to a broad range of economic contexts and applications.

ABSTRACT. Many economic decision situations of foresters and farmers are characterized by risk. Thereby, the individual risk attitude is of special interest for understanding decision behaviour and is thus fundamental for valuable policy recommendations. The literature provides various methods to measure the risk attitude, even though their respective suitability has not been entirely tested. Furthermore, existing analyses mostly focus on students and in the field of resource economics on farmers. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the risk attitude of foresters and on the comparison with farmers and students. Therefore, we investigate to what extent results are comparable across different methods and whether the risk attitude of foresters differs from the risk attitude of farmers and forestry students. For analysing this issue, we conduct an incentivized online experiment using the Holt and Laury (HL) task, the Eckel and Grossman (EG) task and a self-assessment (SA) questionnaire. As a result, SA values do not correlate with the HL values, but the EG values correlate with the HL values across all groups, although, risk-aversion coefficients differ in their height. According to the HL task and the EG task, we reveal higher risk aversion for foresters in comparison to farmers, while forestry students do not differ from foresters.

ABSTRACT. empirical studies dealing with rural households’ energy consumption features at individual household level are scant in the existing literature, even less is known about the influence of sociocultural backgrounds in fuel consumption behaviour. This paper attempts to bridge this knowledge gap by investigating the characteristics of fuelwood consumption of relatively low income rural households in underdeveloped western China at both aggregate and stratified segment level. Based on first-hand rural households survey data in two inland western provinces of Gansu and Yunnan where ethnic minority families are widely spread, this paper empirically evaluates residential fuelwood consumption for cooking and heating and its determinants with a Tobit model. We find that coal is consistently a substitute to fuelwood for residential cooking and heating consumption for lower income rural families, whereas electricity turns out to be substitute to fuelwood only for households earning a higher income. Biogas is also found as a strong substitute to fuelwood. Yet, we do not find evidence that household income produces a statistically significant influence on fuelwood consumption, while the larger off-farm proportion significantly reduces household’s demand for fuelwood, especially for the high income households. We also find that minority families are more inclined to use fuelwood than Han-majority households.

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the explanatory power of the risk attitude measured with the Holt and Laury (HL) task for farmers’ production decision-behaviour. In order to achieve this, a Just and Pope (JP) production function is estimated using panel data of German farmers. The farmers’ risk attitude measured by the HL task is tested against their production risk. The results show that the farmers’ risk attitude determined with the HL task has an explanatory power for the respective production risk. With higher risk aversion less production risk is tolerated. Consequently, a neutral framed HL task is proven to be appropriate to reflect the risk attitude of farmers in real production decisions.

ABSTRACT. Agricultural diversification may provide synergies in farm enterprises, spread production risks and improve income stability of farmers. This paper investigates characteristics of crop-livestock diversification among smallholders in the forest savannah agro-ecological zone of Ghana. Using an econometric model we obtain evidence that scope economies and risk were significant in determining diversification decisions of farmers. Economies of scope were evident in crops such as cowpea, groundnut and yam, in combination with small ruminants, such as sheep and goats. The results indicate that to improve productivity and associated benefits from crop-livestock diversification policy makers need to encourage strategies for enhancing crop-livestock diversification systems among smallholders in Ghana.

ABSTRACT. The study examines the consumer survey data collected for the seven agricultural products (rice, apple, cucumber, beef, pork, egg, and shiitake mushrooms) of regions near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (FDNP) to find out what factors and attributes of consumers affect their purchasing behavior by using the contingent valuation method. In most of the agricultural products, we found that consumers who put high priority on food safety issue, think the risk of radiation contamination became high after the Fukushima nuclear incident, live distanced from the FDNP, and live with children under the age of 15 require a higher discount rate to accept agricultural products of regions near the FDNP. On the other hand, our study indicated that consumers who trust the current safety standard for radioactive material concentrations in food, knowledgeable about radiation and radioactive materials, have high environmental consciousness, and aged are more likely to accept buying products of regions near the FDNP.

ABSTRACT. There has been much said about the potential for Big Data breakthroughs in all industries, This paper explores the potential of Big Data for Australian grain growers. It suggests a possible data capture model and then explores the potential areas of economic benefit for growers. The paper identifies that the vast majority of the investment in systems infrastructure has already potentially been made. It also establishes areas where Big Data could assist grain growers in improving economic outcomes on their farms, using examples of businesses, concepts and models already established locally and in the U.S. and Europe. It concludes by identifying the limitations required and potential further studies required to harness the benefits.

ABSTRACT. Using a multi-currency version of the GTAP model, this paper simulates the effects of the Chinese currency devaluation as well as the Australian-China FTA. The simulated macroeconomic results show that a 3% devaluation of Chinese currency can provide a mild improvement to the Chinese economy (0.008% increase in real GDP) and has little overall impact for Australia. The ChAFTA can benefit both Australia and China. In the short run, the ChAFTA can bring a 0.014% real GDP increase for Australia and a 0.004% real GDP increase for China. In the long run, the benefit of ChAFTA will be almost doubled. The sectoral results are mixed. Most agricultural sectors will benefit from both the ChAFTA and a devaluation of Chinese currency, but some agricultural sectors will be worse off. In the scenario of currency devaluation, the negatively affected sectors include Vegetables, fruit & nuts, oil & seeds, and other crops. The losers from the ChAFTA are the rice, wheat, vegetable, fruit & nuts, other crops, forestry products, other meat, processed rice, sugar, and textiles & leather.

ABSTRACT. Ensuring stability in terms of availability, access and utilisation of food has long been a central concern for national governments, and more recently global multilateral institutions concerned with food and agriculture. There are many paths to ensure food stability for countries. International food markets and trade have been considered as one of the most efficient ways especially after 1970s. Similarly, pursuing self-sufficiency policies and ensuring the production of all required food within the country has been another strategy of choice. However, neither has proved to be successful or efficient, all of the time, in the past. In the aftermath of the world food (price) crisis in 2007/2008 and 2011 when the international food markets were extremely volatile even in the absence of any major disruptions in world food production, governments have been revisiting one of the oldest strategies to ensure greater stability, that of maintaining food stockpiles. Countries which have adequate food stockpiles can weather global food price shocks, local supply shocks from failed harvests, income shocks (from economic downturns or exchange rate shocks), disruptions in trade due to export bans, as well as during times of emergencies and calamities. This research asks to what extent and how food stockpiling can help stabilise, build resiliency, and allow for a more robust national food security? This paper is based on the findings from the field work in Asia (India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore).

ABSTRACT. Foreign ownership of Australian agricultural and agribusiness assets has been the object of much recent attention from the press and political discourse. This presentation reports on a recent survey of Australian agribusiness firms conducted as part of an undergraduate thesis. A sample of firms stratified across states of Australia, commodity sectors and stages of the value chain were presented with an on-line survey which established presence, vintage, extent and form of foreign ownership. Impressions of its effect were expressed in Likert scale form, covering conventional business performance as well as some media-focused variables such as employment, and competitiveness influences such as innovation and market access. General statements of preference and intuition on foreign ownership are also included. Variation within and between subsamples is used to establish an estimate of industry preference and the underlying causes of its variation. Divergence between attitude and practice is also identified. The salience of selected aspects of received anecdotal wisdom is examined. Explanation and discussion of the results provide insights for policy at local and national level, and for commercial strategy at sector and firm level.

ABSTRACT. In recent years there has been growing concern about how to efficiently and sustainably use natural capital to meet society’s demand for goods and services and to ensure its future wellbeing. Accurately accounting for natural capital provides adequate information on the pattern and trend of natural resources used in the production process that can assist resource managers to make the best management decisions in using natural capital at agricultural farms in a sustainable manner. Although a number of national and international initiatives have recently been undertaken to measure natural capital at macro level, methods of estimating natural capital at farms are not readily available. This may be partly because of the inevitable challenges of identifying and quantifying variables that are required to be incorporated into natural capital accounting framework for agricultural farms. The study attempts to identify, quantify and value the potential variables and attributes, and to establish a link between stock and flows of natural capital used on agricultural farms. The possibility of applying the concept of ‘Big Data’ to Australian agriculture, particularly to measure natural capital, is investigated. This study offers a new productivity and efficiency measurement technique defined as the ‘natural capital adjusted efficiency indicator’ to evaluate the performance of agricultural farms in relation to the dynamics of natural capital on farm and to obtain an indication of how efficiently and sustainably natural capital is being used in the agricultural sector.

ABSTRACT. While the coal seam gas (CSG) industry is relatively new in Australia its growth has been significant. To date, development has been located almost entirely in Queensland. Significant quantities of coal seam water (CSW) are produced as a by-product of this industry. Once treated, it provides a potential benefit for agricultural use. How much water is being produced, where, and what proportion can practically be used for this purpose depends on a number of social and environmental limitations. Among these limitations are that much of this water is only available for a limited timeframe, perhaps only 15 to 20 years, and much of this water is only available in proximity to large treatment plants. Potential irrigators where left with difficult choices regarding a new water supply with special conditions. Based on farm interviews in the Chinchilla District, Queensland, it was revealed that despite the water being provided cheaply it carried large penalties for refusal of monthly contract volumes. In addition, all infrastructure expenses needed to be made in advance. Three categories of farmers emerged. The first, were farmers who refused the water and continued to dryland crop or graze. The second, were those who replaced more expensive water resources and consolidated their financial position for the contract period. Lastly, were farmers who embraced extending strategies beyond the contract period such as additional infrastructure to access additional water and expanding their farm area for additional dryland cropping and/or grazing. This provided valuable new information about farmer transition strategies in relation to a new source of water with particular restrictions and characteristics.

ABSTRACT. I study the local economic and welfare impacts of three of Indonesia’s largest recent oil and gas, mining, and palm oil plantation booms. I apply the synthetic control method to district-level economic and social data from 1999—2014 to construct precise quantitative estimates—i.e., non-parametric difference-in-difference estimates—of the local impacts of resource shocks, relying on permutation tests for inference. Synthetic controls are constructed for the three districts experiencing the largest sudden increases production of natural gas, minerals, and palm oil, with these production booms all arising from plausibly exogenous variation in land use and reserves. Results are presented for total regional GDP and its various components, average district household expenditures, and poverty. In its first application to volatile sub-national data from a developing country, I show that the synthetic control estimation can be a useful tool to analyse the heterogeneous impacts of different local shocks and policy changes if appropriate precautions are taken in the research design. Synthetic control methods allow for quantitative causal inference unavailable through standard case study methods, and more context-specific precision than standard econometric techniques averaging effects out over heterogeneous treatments.

ABSTRACT. Research indicates potential yield benefits from replenishing phosphorus (P) in sub-surface layers (10-30cm) if soil tests indicate a deficiency; however, it was unknown if amelioration has economic merit. Deep-P placement is a longer-term decision due to initial application and P fertiliser (MAP) costs with potential benefits that can last for many seasons. However there are risks due to unknown future season types. The fundamental question of deep-P placement is “how much P and how often?” We developed a bio-economic framework and used a case study in the Goondiwindi region with a deep-soil Colwell-P of 5 mg/kg to demonstrate the risk and benefit of applying different amounts of MAP at depth for a “short-rotation” (3-years) and “long-rotation” (7-years). The results indicate: (a) the optimal MAP rate was 135 kg/ha and 270 kg/ha for the short- and long-rotations, respectively, resulting in real-annual returns of $43/ha/year and $76/ha/year; (b) the short-rotation risked a loss of -$14/ha/year compared to $6/ha/year for the long-rotation (worst case); and (c) due to the lower investment cost with the short-rotation, the expected return on investment was 142%, compared to 67% p.a. for the long-rotation. The payback period for both decisions was around 2-years. As with all risky decisions, the farmer will have to weigh up the benefits, risks and their financial situation. Economic results will change when biophysical or pricing parameters change. As our knowledge of deep-P responses improve they can be incorporated into this bio-economic framework.

ABSTRACT. The spread of invasive species continues to provide significant challenges to those government biosecurity agencies charged with protecting a country’s borders. In an increasingly connected world, these invasive species are potentially able to spread further and more rapidly. Human mediated pathways such as ships and airlines are the most obvious ways in which invasive species can be spread. Direct routes from one port to another are currently monitored, but indirect pathways, in which a ship picks up an invasive species and then travels to a number of different locations before arriving at the final destination, present more challenging scenarios. For the Australian Department of Agriculture, one particular concern is for ships arriving into Australia carrying viable eggs of the Asian gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar). We are developing a real time tool that will analyse the pathways for incoming ships and determine the likelihood the ship could be carrying viable eggs. The tool will be combined with queuing theory to analyse optimal ship inspection regimes to target invasive species. This combined model is likely to deliver significant benefits in terms of increased efficiency of port inspections and reduced costs to the Department of Agriculture. We present some of the results of early analyses, discuss the implications, and the further work required.

ABSTRACT. Australia is one of the most isolated economies in the world, which affects its trade and productivity. It is also the driest content in the world, which has not allowed a large population growth. On the other hand, the country is rich in many other natural resources, especially mineral and fossil fuel commodities, which have supported its economic growth and development. However, Australia as large country does present important disparities on economic development across regions. For instance, weekly family net income in 2006 varied from $478 to $5,000 across statistical local areas (SLAs) and unemployment rate shown figures of zero to up to 20%. The factors underlying these changes across the country are not fully understood and empirical literature trying to capture their relevant contribution to different development indicators is scarce. In this paper we aim to provide a comprehensive empirical analysis of different determinants of economic development across all Australian regions by modelling regional development based on four main indicators: population, income, employment and urban growth across regions. To do these we exploit different source of data sets not previously used in conjunction (census data, satellite land use data and climatological rasters) and employ reduced form and instrumental variables approaches to econometrically estimate the importance of four main forces of development across regions over the period 2006-2011: locational attributes, local amenities, quality of life and agglomeration effects.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the significant differences that would emerge for policy formulation in an environmental-macroeconomic framework. In this paper, the environmental-macroeconomic model is based on a three-factor utilization function with the third factor being environmental capital. When environmental capital is internalized in the standard macroeconomic model, an economy’s steady state equilibrium (the amount of capital accumulated that is just sufficient to meet the needs of capital depreciation and the entrance of new workers) will differ as the revised steady state equilibrium takes into account the environment.

The environmental-macroeconomic model has been applied to two OECD economies namely, Australia and Canada (1990 to 2013) to illustrate variations in their steady state equilibrium. The commodity-driven economies were chosen to emphasize the role which resources play in the economies’ development. It is observed that the capacity of the economies can be overstated if environmental capital is not explicitly considered. The findings suggest that economic growth and the utilization of environmental capital must be accorded equal importance for sustainable development in resource rich economies.

These results are sufficient grounds to argue that the policy ranges presented to policy makers for policy making based on the standard macroeconomic model requires refinement. As illustrated in this paper, the implications of developing and applying environmental-macroeconomic framework for formulating sustainable environmental and climate change policies are compelling.

ABSTRACT. Taking values of forest ecosystem services into account when making decision is vital for sustainable use forestry. The likely provision of forest ecosystem services can be estimated from forest land use and land cover (LULC). At the same time, forest governance regime has a defining effect on changes in forest LULC. It is therefore essential to study the linkage between forest governance and provision of forest ecosystem services. This paper, which is a component of our broader research agenda around the effects of forest governance on forest ecosystem services, presents a framework of mapping LULC changes as a consequence of possible changes in forest governance regime. In the context of the research region (the Northwest region of Vietnam), we develop three possible forest governance scenarios: business as usual, with a dominant role for the state; community governance regime, where the responsibility for forest management is divulged to local communities; and private forestry governance regime, where the responsibility for forest management lies with individual households. For each forest governance scenario, we generate LULC change based on land suitability analysis. We use the combination of experts’ knowledge relating to LULC transition likelihood and GIS based information of location factors to map these LULC changes. The results indicate how particular forested areas are likely to be affected under alternative governance scenarios.

ABSTRACT. The ongoing structural transformation in Africa is moderated by economic reform including environmental considerations such as adapting to climate change that is predicted to affect economic opportunities for both rural and urban populations. For instance, in Sub-Saharan Africa the cost of agricultural inputs and consumer goods are rising faster than the prices of agricultural produce, causing downward pressure on rural household production. This cost-price squeeze creates an environment where declining margins offer little incentive for farmers to take up technological innovations that could mitigate climate risks, requiring farmers to adopt management strategies to mitigate risks and prepare them for competing in growing domestic and international markets. In this paper we investigate how a farming systems approach to planning involving spatial delineation and characterisation of farming systems, detailed economic assessments and expert-assisted risk management strategies can help assist development planning and priority setting in an environment of increasing uncertainty. The preliminary results in Ethiopia and Tanzania indicate that farming practices and planning scope differ considerably across farming systems and within a study area. Further it was observed that while agriculture is the principle economic activity for majority of rural population, utilization of agricultural inputs such as improved seeds, extension services, fertilizers and irrigation is generally low. The analysis suggests that farming system sensitive policies and practices will need to be adopted to improve agricultural productivity, enhance livelihood and reduce agricultural investment risks.

ABSTRACT. Last year, we presented a paper at the AARES conference in Rotorua, NZ, (Economic Impacts of Subsidence and Accretion in the Sacramento- San Joaquin Delta, Session 32), that discussed the problems of subsidence in the Delta, and an approach to slowing, stopping or reversing subsidence in order to reduce levee failures and flooding. We discussed the trade-offs between various approaches to the problem, and the results of our modeling efforts to date, including subsidizing producers to adopt new crops to achieve the solution to the problem of subsidence. However our modeling efforts were not complete enough to draw any substantive conclusions on the resulting policy implications. In the last year we have completed our analysis of the returns to State sponsored subsidies and turned now to analyzing the larger picture of policy implications, and the distribution of benefits and costs among the large, diverse political community, some of whom are beneficiaries of certain policies, and others of whom will bear costs for which they may not be compensated. The point of the paper is to emphasize the importance of completing benefit-cost analyses by reviewing and analyzing the outcomes of recommendations that arise from a benefit-cost analysis. This second and final aspect of benefit-cost analyses is often overlooked by economists.

ABSTRACT. The relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth in China over the period 1985-2012 is investigated. Long and short run Granger causal relationships between these variables are ascertained by applying a vector error correction model to national, electricity-market, and provincial-level data. A comparison is then made between the relationships obtained from these different datasets. The results suggest that a large amount of information is lost as a result of aggregation, with data at the national and electricity-market levels being unable to accurately reflect prevailing relationships observed at the provincial level. This observation is particularly relevant given the predominance of national level studies found in the literature.

ABSTRACT. Financial capital is important for national-level energy-mix transitions, owing to the capital intensive nature of energy production. This paper uses energy data from the International Energy Agency for the period 1998–2012, for up to 137 countries, to conduct panel and cross-sectional regressions. I investigate the impact of financial capital on national-level use of different energy types. I find that the importance of financial capital varies depending on development level of different countries, and the stage of maturity for an energy type. Further, national adoption of some energy types is particularly reliant on financial capital. For higher-income countries, financial sectors support the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources such as wind energy. Considerable variation in financial sector size contributes to variation in renewable energy consumption. In Australia for example, bank credit to the private sector as a proportion of GDP was double the global average in 2011, contributing to higher wind energy use, all else equal. For lower-income countries, bank credit to the private sector supports progression towards fossil fuel energy sources. Other variables such as gross domestic product per capita and natural resource endowments also affect energy transitions.

ABSTRACT. Natural gas contributes a growing share of the world’s energy mix. In this paper we use national-level data for a sample of 44 countries to estimate the price and income elasticities of aggregate natural gas demand. We present both single-equation results and results instrumenting natural gas prices with each country’s proven natural gas reserves per capita. We obtain estimates of the average long-run price elasticity of natural gas demand close to –1 and of the average long-run income elasticity of natural gas demand of slightly above +1. We also present separate estimates for final natural gas demand by industry and households.

ABSTRACT. In an effort to reduce pollution from the electricity sector, governments are heavily subsidizing renewables. The subsidies, however, are not being used in isolation. Instead, they are often provided in regions where certain pollutants are regulated by cap-and-trade programs. I demonstrate that, when combined with a cap-and-trade program, renewable subsidies can cause an undesirable outcome -- they can increase emissions of unregulated pollutants. Focusing on the region regulated by the Clean Air Interstate Rule, I show that, if the EPA sets a binding cap on NOx, expanding renewable capacity not only offsets zero tons of NOx, it will increase SO2 emissions.

ABSTRACT. To provide information on spatial features of valuation scenarios, stated preference (SP) surveys frequently include maps of affected policy sites. These maps are almost universally generic with respect to the spatial information provided to each respondent. That is, all respondents are shown the same map for each valuation scenario; these maps neither identify the location of each respondent’s household relative to hypothetical policy effects, nor provide other respondent-specific detail. The cognitive challenges associated with generic maps such as these are well-established in the map cognition literature. Generic maps such as these, however, are not a necessary part of SP design — advances in automated geocoding and GIS mapping now enable cost-effective production of SP surveys tailored to each respondent household. The theoretical and empirical capacity of such individually-geocoded questionnaires to enhance welfare estimation, however, remains unknown. This paper is the first to evaluate the universal practice of generic policy-area mapping in SP welfare elicitation, compared to a more information-intensive alternative in which individualized maps identify the location of each respondent’s home relative to policy effects. Systematic comparison of results from these otherwise identical questionnaires illustrates the implications of survey design that provides individualized spatial detail, and suggests potential limitations of current approaches. The analysis is grounded in a theoretical model clarifying the role of individualized spatial information within multi-attribute preference elicitation. The model is illustrated using an application of choice experiments to riparian restoration in Maine, USA. Results clarify situations which unbiased welfare elicitation requires SP surveys to provide individualized spatial information, and the potential consequences of not doing so.

ABSTRACT. This study employs the experienced preference method to quantify the hedonistic cost of the Black Saturday Bushfires, which started on and around the 7th of February 2009 in Victoria, Australia. Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey and data from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) this study explores the spatial and temporal dimensions of the hedonistic costs of the Black Saturday Bushfires, a natural experiment. Specifically, this study reveals the size and nature of the psychological cost borne by those living near fire effected land and the draws attention to the spillover effects borne by those living in further away, in more bushfire prone areas. In doing so, this study makes a distinct contribution to both the non-market valuation literature and the economics of happiness literature. It is envisaged that the findings of this study will help inform decision makers, public debate and public policy on the magnitude and characteristics of the psychological costs associated with Black Saturday Bushfires. Furthermore, these findings are more generally pertinent to understanding how the increased risks of bushfires caused by anthropogenic climate change may adversely affect human welfare.

ABSTRACT. The Kimberley region in northern Western Australia has impressive coastal landscapes and unique marine ecosystems drawing tourists from around the globe; and prompting both State and Federal Governments to establish marine parks in the coastal waters. There is also growing interest in the region’s mining and agricultural sectors. Future planning and management decisions will need to balance these economic activities and biodiversity conservation along the coast. This study is part of a larger study investigating how environmental values for the Kimberley vary by their location. The objective of this presentation is to test for consistency in values as the geographical scope changes between survey split samples. We conducted three separate choice experiments each offering the same management attributes but occurring in three different regions of the Kimberley. These regions differ by location, size and character. The first is the smaller and more populated Roebuck Bay area around Broome, the second is the remote Camden Sound region, and the third survey covers the whole Kimberley coastline—which incorporates the previous two regions. We explore the changes in respondent’s willingness to pay for the different management outcomes across the two specific regions and compare these to the whole Kimberley coastline.

ABSTRACT. The Kimberley in Western Australia is a remote and sparsely populated region, encompassing an area twice the size of Victoria. The Kimberley is well known for its Aboriginal heritage, as a tourism destination, and for its rich minerals and metals deposits. The natural landscape of the region is impressive and unique, with many endemic flora and fauna. The marine environment in particular is noted for its pristine conditions and ecological diversity. However, pressures on Kimberley marine and coastal environments are growing. Decisions have to be made about the range of activities that will be allowed along the Kimberley coast, including biodiversity conservation, commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, mining operations, and pearling and aquaculture. To inform future management of Kimberley coastal waters, a discrete choice experiment study was undertaken that aims to estimate the values that Western Australians attach to different characteristics of the Kimberley (marine reserves, aboriginal values, recreational facilities and development). A novel aspect of this choice experiment study is its spatial character. The Kimberley region was divided into multiple zones, and management outcomes were made spatially explicit. Respondents made choices not just about the levels of attribute changes but also in which zone they would occur. In this presentation, the spatial design of the experiment and its results will be discussed. We show that preferences for attributes vary across zones, and that people attach different values to more ‘remote’ zones compared to zones that are more familiar or more accessible to respondents. We also contrast the values held by residents of the Kimberley to a Perth-based sample population.

ABSTRACT. Australia is one of the most urbanised nations on Earth and the concentration of human populations in metropolitan centres necessarily increases the pressure on the natural landscape remaining within city boundaries, like urban waterways. Whilst the benefits of ‘blue space’ in urban environments has recently attracted attention in Europe, there is relatively little formal literature dealing with the benefits of urban waterways in Australia. This is an important omission in a country destined to have 93 per cent of its population residing in urban areas by 2050 and where ‘liveability’ considerations increasingly manifest in difficult policy trade-offs around preservation and improvement of natural and modified environmental assets. This study uses a choice experiment to investigate and enumerate the non-market value of waterways in Melbourne. More specifically, a mixed logit model is used to estimate the amenity and ecological value respondents place on Melbourne’s urban waterways. The estimates generated by this study provide a basis for comparing management and policy options. Overall, we note that the data support the view that management and policy options relating to Melbourne’s waterways need to give significant weight to the ecological value of waterways. Adding amenity alone to Melbourne’s waterways will likely be a poor substitute for any foregone ecological values. The findings significantly improve our understanding of the sustainable management of urban waterways and enhance environmental valuation generally. This will mean better management of Australia’s water assets and optimal resolution of the conflicting demands on water resources.

ABSTRACT. Marine reserve networks are intended to protect biodiversity and maintain the ecological integrity of marine ecosystems, however trade-offs between the extent to which they are effective in protecting various features are inevitable in their design and priorities need to be identified for effective management. The costs and benefits of different designs, and priorities for stakeholders that have direct links to the ocean, such as fisheries, are relatively easy to quantify. Less so are the costs and benefits on the general public, who may hold non-use values for ecological assets protected by these networks.

We focus on five features of the South-east Australian marine region which have been identified as important by scientists and managers, and occur in the South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserves Network. We use a choice experiment involving a large sample of the regional population which requires them to choose between different options for managing the South-east Marine Reserves Network. In choice modelling, reliable estimates of preferences require respondents have a clear understanding of the ‘good’ involved. We explore the effect of the way in which marine features are described to respondents through experimental treatments including videos and expert scientific opinion. Results reveal positive values across all respondents for protecting all features other than important areas for white shark populations. Investigation of individual level preferences suggests that attitudes towards sharks might provide an indicator of the extent to which all features, as well as the broader ecosystem, are valued. We find no evidence that public values were affected by the manner in which we presented information in the survey.

ABSTRACT. The effect of adverse health and economic shocks (such as death of main earner, illness and medical expenses, crop and productive asset loss etc.) in rural Bangladesh can be substantial, because many households in a rural setting still remain impoverished and vulnerable to shocks that cause sudden losses of real income. These negative health and economic shocks can significantly lead to starvation and food insecurity which may intensify under nutrition among the members of the households. Using a large cross sectional household data set from rural Bangladesh over the period 2011-2012, our paper aims to gain a better appreciation of the vulnerabilities that confront food security and dietary diversity of the rural households in response to different health and economic shocks. We develop an outcome variable "Food Consumption Score"(FCS), which has been validated as a measure of food security and is being increasingly used. FCS reflects the quality of food available to households and captures both food frequency and dietary diversity using the 7-day recall household food consumption data. Our initial results show statistically significant relationship between the indicators of household health and economic shocks and food insecurity. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the relationship between household health and economic shocks and food security and dietary diversity using FCS as an outcome variable in rural Bangladesh. In addition, our study is significant in offering more robust econometric approach given the highly disaggregated nature of the dataset.

ABSTRACT. Like many other developing countries, Indonesia has attempted to pursue the MDG priorities which expire in 2015. The country has been successful to meet the target for reducing the prevalence of underweight children below 5 years. However, in many poor and marginalized households which mostly dependent on agricultural sectors as their source of livelihoods, the children suffer from inadequate nutritional status as revealed by the high incidence of underweight and stunted. While existing empirical studies have focused on sectoral interventions to improve nutrition, very few research have examined how income and agriculture growth affect nutrition outcome. Having insight of this research gap, this study examines the linkage of income, agriculture and nutrition. The data used in this research is from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS). IFLS is a longitudinal socioeconomic and health survey that has been conducted in 1993, 1997, 2000, and 2007. The use of longitudinal data provides an opportunity to understand the dynamic behavior of households. Controlling for covariates of nutrition outcome, this study explores the relationship between income and anthropometric indicators. While income matters for nutrition outcome, the results show that households’ environment conditions such as improved water sources and toilet facilities have a strong contribution to nutrition outcome. In terms of agriculture, we also find that irrigation has significant effects on nutrition outcomes through the increase of yield and diet diversification and livestock grown. The findings suggest that agriculture and irrigation can be considered a potential entry point to reduce malnutrition.

ABSTRACT. This research investigates how household socioeconomic factors, including gender empowerment and market access, affect rural Fijian households’ expenditure shares on healthy versus unhealthy food items and thus, the diet quality of the household. Fiji is a country heavily reliant on food imports; it has undergone a significant nutrition transition whereby the relatively healthy traditional diet has been replaced by a diet high in processed foods, meat, sugar and refined staples (Thow et al, 2011). These dietary changes have contributed to a catastrophic rise in the prevalence of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other diet-related chronic diseases (Coyne, 2000). To understand how different socioeconomic factors influence rural consumer’s food purchasing behaviour, we use household level data to develop proxies for diet quality, including a Healthy Eating Index and estimates of household food expenditure shares on healthy and unhealthy food. We follow the work of Volpe, Okrent and Leibtag (2013) to determine food products that are healthy according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, and adapted those to the Fijian context. We found that for rural households, own production of food, distance to modern markets, women’s involvement in food purchasing and other household decisions, and ethnicity were more influential on the share of household expenditures on healthy versus unhealthy food items than other socioeconomic factors such as education and age. This study is the first of its kind to examine rural Fijian household food purchasing decisions, and provides timely insights on how the nutrition transition in Fiji has impacted household diet quality.

ABSTRACT. This article investigates the association between agricultural production diversity and household diet diversity (as a measure of diet quality) in rural farming households in Fiji. We also control for factors that may influence this relationship. Previous literature suggests that agriculture can play an important role in shaping nutrition outcomes, however, little is known about the relationship between production diversity and diet diversity. Production diversity may directly influence nutrition in agricultural households, not only through income generated from agricultural production, but also through home consumption (Malapit et al, 2015). This study is the first of its type in Fiji or the Pacific to explore the relationship between household production diversity and diet diversity. Similar to other regions, in Fiji and the Pacific, deaths from diet-related non-communicable diseases are on the rise. This trend is attributed to the dietary changes, including a decrease in consumption of traditional root crops and other local food products (Thow et al, 2011). We follow Kumar et al. (2015) and Jones et al. (2014) and construct dietary diversity and agricultural diversity measures for farming households, and we consider changes in the consumption of food groups over the last five years. We find a significant and positive relationship between increased production diversity and diet quality (e.g. higher consumption of vegetables, fruit and dairy); and higher incomes from horticultural production and improved diet quality. However, this relationship in rural Fijian households is complex, and influenced by a number of different socioeconomic factors, including gender and household decision-making, and access to different types of markets.

ABSTRACT. China’s rich culinary heritage has limited the inroads of the Western diet that other newly developed nations have adopted, but increased wealth and policy change over the last 30 years has allowed hundreds of millions of its citizens to change their spending and eating habits. China’s diet has shifted away from cereals and grains with relatively small quantities of meat to a diet with more fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, meat, and dairy products. This analysis links Chinese food consumption with the greenhouse gas emissions of Chinese food production industries to determine the effects of dietary change on the embodied greenhouse gas emissions in food between 1990 and 2011, both in China as well as in its top food import suppliers. While the food and beverage sector is commonly identified in index decomposition analyses of energy and emissions for entire economies, because of the level of aggregation used, any changes in diet are accounted for in only the most general terms. We utilize high resolution, disaggregated food and emissions data to examine the embodied greenhouse gas emissions in China and its trade partners resulting from Chinese dietary changes to scale, structure, and efficiency over a 20-year period. Results indicate that while livestock production continues to generate a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gas, improvements in technological efficiency have slowed increases in emissions, while emissions associated with fresh fruit and vegetable production are expanding more rapidly. Additionally, Chinese imports of foods with lower embodied emissions from other countries is also curbing the growth of China’s food-related greenhouse gases.

ABSTRACT. Understanding international consumer preferences and attitudes towards food and beverages is important particularly for countries like New Zealand and even the European Union that depend on food exports. New Zealand’s export focus has changed over the past decades from almost all exports going to Europe, to more into Asian markets, especially to China. It is therefore important that different cultures and preferences in these markets are considered and understood. This study examined preferences and attitudes towards a number of food attributes in food and beverages. The attributes included basic attributes such as price and quality, but also extended to food safety, health benefits, as well as environmental and social attributes. For key attributes, the importance of factors affecting these and the relationships between them were examined in more detail. Method: The study is based on web-based surveys with 1,000 middle and upper income consumers in China, India, Indonesia, Japan and the UK. In addition, the study examined the potential economic impact of varying levels of premiums for food attributes in the EU (European Union-28) and New Zealand using the partial equilibrium Lincoln Trade and Environment Model (LTEM). Results: This study found that consumers from developing countries valued food attributes more than the developed countries. Results further highlighted the importance of food safety and health foods in these markets. Trade model projections showed that the potential economic impact of varying levels of premiums for food attributes on the EU and New Zealand was important.

ABSTRACT. A wide spread diffusion of combined harvesters in India over the last 10 years, which has helped bringing several structural transformation process in rural India. Using both secondary and primary data, we have evaluated economic gain and social benefits (and costs) of using the combined harvesters, and its implication in rural labor markets, including its distributional implications and in turn, speeding up rural transformation. All of them are facilitated by innovation of new institutions of custom hiring services (rental market) to facilitate efficient use of bulky machines of combined harvesters even by smallholding farmers, stimulated by increased real agricultural wages and changes in rural labor markets. Within 5-6 years of introduction of harvester in one of the studied villages, over 90% of the paddy crop in 2013/14 was harvested by combined harvesters. The use of machine harvester on wheat and paddy can release 38 and 45 labor days of labor per hector, and in turn, saving on labor cost by USD 140-150/ha. Besides saving on the labor costs, timely completion of farm operation., and the reduced risk of crop damage from weather vagaries are the other important incentives to farmers to adopt machine harvesters. The widespread use of combined harvesters in India has also brought several structural changes such as change on cropping pattern, expansion of areas of certain mono crop types that are suitable for using machine harvesters, increasing cropping intensity, and releasing farm labor to non-farm sector activities in the surrounding cities. This has speed up the structural transformation process in rural India affecting wider sectors of economy.

ABSTRACT. In this study, we analysed the adoption of integrated crop management (ICM) technology in rice farming in Timor Leste. Using a survey sample of 400 rice farmers in key rice growing regions conducted in Timor Leste in 2009, a propensity score matching approach was used to obtain matched and comparable observations for ICM and non-ICM farmers. The impacts of ICM technology adoption on key production and outcome variables were evaluated using the “treatment effects” model. Results showed significant differences in key production and outcome variables for adopters and non-adopters of ICM, with ICM adopters having significantly higher yields and incomes. Adoption of ICM was found to be influenced by selected demographic characteristics of farmers and socio-economic indicators. Male farmers tended to adopt the technology. Adoption was also significantly higher for larger farms, but age did not significantly affect farmers’ decisions. Sources of information and information dissemination also affected adoption decisions of farmers.

ABSTRACT. Most studies on adoption of technologies focus on one type of technology or assume that farmers view a set of multiple technologies as a single unit. A theoretical model by Leathers and Smale (1991), however, suggests that farmers may take stepwise adoption due to asymmetric information, even when the farmers are risk-averse and the adoption of multiple technologies would be profitable. However, little has been done to link between farmers’ involvement in contract farming and quality-based pricing and the sequential adoption of multiple innovations. An experimental study in the Vietnamese dairy sector suggests that imposing quality-based bonus payments to contracts between farmers and processors to address information asymmetries would improve input use and therefore milk quality (Saenger et al. 2013). However, it remains unclear whether and how this vertical coordination has impacted farmers’ stepwise adoption of multiple innovations over the contract period taking into account the turnover of contract farming as firms often drop smallholders and smallholders frequently opt out of contract farming (Barrett et al. 2012). Building on conceptual frameworks defined by previous studies (Ersado et al. 2004; Saenger et al. 2014) and using data from a recent survey of over 200 dairy farm households in West Java, Indonesia, this study investigates whether farmers who engage in contract farming and quality-based pricing would be more incentivized to sequentially trial multiple quality-enhancing innovations controlling for other covariates. Results from this study will provide recommendations on the future timing of programs to introduce new innovations to farmers and future packaging of technologies.

ABSTRACT. Chickpea is an important food commodity in South Asia. The South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan) have been net importers of chickpea and the import level has increased substantially over the years. Major import source of chickpea for these countries are Australia and Canada. Available projections show that chickpea import by South Asia will increase in the coming years to satisfy the demands emanated from rise in population and income. Chickpea production and exports by Australia has increased substantially over the last decade. This paper shows that Australia has revealed comparative advantage in production and export of both Desi and Kabuli type of chickpeas. It tracks the role of international agricultural research particularly partnership between ICRISAT and ACIAR in achieving this comparative advantage. It also features the trade policies pursued by Australia and South Asian countries on increased chickpea trade. It shows that increased production and export of chickpea by Australia is a win-win situation for both Australia and South Asia. The paper argues that further reduction in per unit cost of chickpea production in Australia can be attained through continued partnership between ICRISAT and Australia. This potential reduction will ultimately reduce price of chickpea in the international market which will benefit South Asian consumers in terms of stable consumption at a lower price. The authors conclude that strengthened research partnership along with open trade policies will benefit both Australia and South Asia.