Irrigation underpins approximately one-third of the value of Queensland's agricultural production. There have been calls for further development of water infrastructure in northern Queensland to enhance the production of sugar cane, horticulture, aquaculture and other crops. One of the steps in...

The new AWB Ltd payment system for wheat grades has changed the incentives for farmers to grow and market wheat varieties in Australia. Based around standard quality characteristics, the payment system provides incremental premiums and discounts for deviations in protein and screenings around...

Impacts on Australian agriculture of projected climate change are likely to be spatially and temporally diverse, with many regions likely to experience increased downside risk in agricultural production. Some regions, such as south-west Australia, are projected to be particularly at risk of...

Governments are increasingly investing scarce economic resources to change landholders’ behaviour in order to improve the management of natural resources. Landholders can respond to a policy initiative in a variety of ways, and only some of these responses are likely to be consistent with...

Innovation and its uptake are two key ingredients in the Australian wine industry’s rapid rise from cottage industry to international success. The industry has a well-deserved reputation of leadership in the funding, coordination and adoption of both product and process innovation. This...

In this paper, we report our results in measuring total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the New Zealand primary and downstream manufacturing sectors. Our results showed strong TFP growth in the agriculture sector during 1988-2006 (2.7 percent per year). Forestry and logging’s TFP grew...

The use of economic analysis to aid farm input investment decisions has been contentious because of observed flatness of economic response in the region of the optimum input. In this paper an application of a crop simulation model, to specify the production response, in conjunction with...

The occurrence of low night temperatures during reproductive development is one of the factors most limiting rice yields in southern Australia. Yield losses due to cold temperature are the result of incomplete pollen formation and subsequent floret sterility. Researchers have found that in 75%...

Data from a survey of Western Australian grain growers are used to characterise the use and perceptions of durum wheat. The main objective was to identify opportunities for extension to increase the level of durum wheat adoption throughout the grain growing regions of WA. Perceptions of durum...