Uncertainty has been under-recognised as an impediment to the adoption of innovative land conservation practices. High levels of uncertainty inhibit adoption because (a) most farmers are psychologically averse to risk and uncertainty, (b) uncertainty leaves room for misunderstanding and...

In this paper we review some recent studies of the impact of National Competition Policy on rural Australia. National Competition Policy has tended to assume that both domestic and international deregulation of industry leads to a shift from a noncompetitive to a competitive industry structure....

The widespread clearance of native vegetation has been identified as one of the major environmental issues facing Australia. Impacts of clearing include dryland salinity, weed invasion, soil erosion, soil structural decline and the loss of species. Development of effective polices to deal with...

Precision farming has the potential to increase farm productivity, lower input costs and increase expected returns. Despite these potential benefits, the adoption of precision farming technology in Australia has been relatively slow. One of the reasons for this is the lack of information...

In this paper, a bioeconomic model is used to investigate possible externalities imposed by forestry on giant-clam farming in Solomon Islands. This is of economic interest due to the rapid expansion of forestry in that country and the potential for mariculture to become an important source of...

One of the outcomes of the merger of the Farm Management Society of Central South Australia and AARES was a project to record the history of the Australian Farm Management Society. As part of this project it was decided to develop a bibliography of Australian Farm Management Research and...

In their 1982 publication ‘Lessons from the Ord’ Davidson and Graham-Taylor exposed the lack of information and the prevalence of political agendas in far-reaching regional development decisions in northern Australia during the 1960s. This paper revisits regional development issues in...

In the main, Australian agricultural economics has been in the background in the recent trend toward convergence of research and farming practice which has become known as Farming Systems Research (FSR). However, the inherent importance of good economic performance of farms suggests that FSR...

Management of environmental externalities of agricultural production has become a necessity to attain sustainable and efficient use of resources. Policies to promote externality mitigation are moving away from command and control toward industry self-management guided through best-practice...

Central Queensland’s dryland farming systems are subject to high levels of climatic variability, are seen as being relatively risky and also suffering falling profitability due (in part) to the rapid decline of nutrient content and physical structure of soils. This suggests that many farming...