MEASURING PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN AUSTRALIAN BROADACRE AGRICULTURE

An important source of growth for Australian broadacre agriculture has been technical progress. We compare alternative measures of productivity growth including the traditional Tornqvist-Thiel total factor productivity index; variants of this approach that allow decreasing returns to scale; the Fisher ideal index; other nonparametric measures that do not impose particular functional forms and an econometric estimate from a translog industry cost function. The annual growth in productivity in broadacre agriculture over the period from 1953 to 1994 was in the range of 2.4 to 2.6 per cent and hence was quite robust to measurement technique.     

THE RETURNS TO INVESTMENT IN RESEARCH ON AUSTRALIAN WOOL PRODUCTION*

A production function approach is used to estimate growth in farm productivity in the Australian wool industry from an estimated level of expenditure on wool production R & D. A market equilibrium model of the wool industry is then used to measure the share of total benefits from this productivity growth accruing to Australia and its wool growers. A net return is estimated after allowing for lags in the development and adoption of technology.     

STABILISATION AND RISK REDUCTION IN AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE*

Agricultural producers typically are faced with risk about the yields they will experience and the prices they will receive. Stabilisation schemes can spread risk and thereby reduce the risk faced by individual producers. The risk-reducing capacity of a scheme and the cost of risk reduction depend upon the design of the scheme. In particular, it is important to distinguish between risk and instability. A classification of scheme designs is presented to bring out the effects of various design types. Schemes for the wheat industry are given most attention.     

EVALUATING RETURNS TO RESEARCH IN PASTURE IMPROVEMENT*

The objectives of the study reported here were (a) to attempt to identify pasture research findings which have been important for the development of improved pastures in a number of agricultural regions, and (b) to estimate the internal rates of return on the investment in pasture research in these regions. The technique used was the estimation of input-demand functions for the stock of improved pastures. It is shown that the important research results were mainly the result of research in plant nutrition. Adoption lags were estimated, and these were short by comparison with those usually derived by other methods. Internal rates of return calculated for successful research findings were very high, hut there were important differences between regions.     

FACTOR SUBSTITUTION IN AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE

Studies of the ease of substitution between inputs in production have generally been carried out within a production framework of an explicit functional form. In this study, a somewhat different approach is followed. A model of derived demand for primary factors of production, land, labour and capital is formulated to enable inferences to be made about the characteristics of the unspecified production function. The model is used to obtain estimates of the pairwise Allen-Uzawa substitution elasticities which are secondary parameters of the underlying production function. The reported FIML estimates from aggregate time series data for the period 1920/21 to 1969/70 indicate very low and marginally different substitution elasticities between different pairs of factors, suggesting that both the Cobb-Douglas and CES production function specifications for the Australian agricultural sector are inappropriate.     

TAXATION,COST OF CAPITAL AND INVESTMENT IN AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE*

The concept and measurement of the cost of capital is developed to include particularly the role of taxation in investment behaviour. The relative importance of factors influencing investment in plant and machinery is examined for five sectors which make up the broadacre industry of Australia. It is shown that residual funds are important in determining plant and machinery investment, but not through the normally hypothesised channels. It is not the increased liquidity from increased income which raises investment, but the fall in the cost of capital, which is associated with the marginal rate of tax.     

ECONOMIC COSTS AND RETURNS FROM CROP DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH: THE CASE OF RAPESEED BREEDING IN CANADA

Public and private investment in Research and Development are an important source of economic growth. This article documents the high rate of return to society from investment in agricultural research. The analysis took the form of estimating the gains in producer and consumer surplus from research that improved rapeseed yield in western Canada and related these gains to research expenditures by calculating an internal rate of return. The distribution of the return between consumers and producers were estimated. The internal rate of return was found to be 101 percent and indicates an underinvestment in this type of research. Of the total net benefits, consumers captured 53 percent and producers 47 percent.
L'argent public et prive investi dans la recherche et le développement est une source importante de croissance économique. Le présent article fournit une documentation sur le taux élvé des profits que rapportent à la société les investissements dans la recherche en agriculture. Notre analyse a pris la forme d'une estimation des gains en surplus réalisés par le producteur et le consommateur, à la suite de recherches améliorant le rendement de la semence du colza dans l'ouest canadien, puis nous avons établi un rapport entre ces gains et les dépenses pour la recherche en calculant un taux de profits internes. Nous avons évalué la répartition des profits entre consommateurs et producteurs. Le taux des profits internes s'est avéré être de 101 pour cent, et cela signifie un sous-investissement dans ce type de recherche. Les consommateurs ont réalisé 53 pour cent du total des bénéficies nets, alors que les producteurs en ont récupéré 47 pour cent. 1928 ems     

THE MEASUREMENT OF MANAGERIAL EFFICIENCY IN AGRICULTURE*

This paper is an outline only of a Ph.D. thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham. The paper proposes a socio-economic model of farm production with special emphasis placed on the role of management: formulates an econometric model, to represent the socio-economic model, in which the degree of managerial efficiency appears as a variable, and suggests means of interpretation of the econometric model to aid farm planning at the individual farm level.     

THE ECONOMIC SURPLUS OF AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM*

The economic surplus of an industry is defined as the difference between its real product, and the real income accruing to it. The surplus from U.K. agriculture measured at 1964/65–66/67 prices is estimated to have risen by about 20 million per year in recent years. The absorption of this surplus by other sectors is identified and an approximate indication is given of the equivalent surpluses and deficits of other industry groups. The economic surplus from agriculture is transferred principally through changes in relative prices, the necessity of which tends to create an unavoidable minimum rate of inflation. There is an international equivalent of these transfers of real income through price changes, but without the institutional constraints on the market which in the domestic economy preserve some measure of equity in the distribution of income.     

RESEARCH PRIORITIES IN AGRICULTURE

Following brief presentation of the post-war pattern of agricultural R and D expenditure and productivity changes, the major theoretical issues associated with the evaluation and assessment of R and D spending are discussed. It is argued that emphasis on ex post evaluations of R and D, particularly through rate of return calculations, is misplaced. The economist's tool-box contains many more instruments than internal rates of return and simplified cost/benefit analyses which are relevant to the difficult decisions of R and D allocation and management. A supply/demand perspective of the R and D system and its interaction with the rest of the social economy is suggested as being more useful in the examination of R and D questions than the traditional view of R and D as a linear progression from pure science through applied research and development to adoption, which is implicit in investment analysis. Some implications of the supply/demand view are identified.     

THE IMPACT OF FARM AND PROCESSING RESEARCH ON THE AUSTRALIAN WOOL INDUSTRY*

An equilibrium displacement model of the world wool top industry is used to estimate the returns to the Australian wool industry from productivity improvements in farm production, in top making and in textile manufacturing. The returns to the industry from these different types of research and development are sensitive to the extent of substitution possibilities between Australian wool and other inputs used by the wool processing and textile industries but it appears that research resources have to be much more efficient in off-farm activities for the Australian wool industry to receive benefits similar to those from farm research activities.     

RESOURCE PRODUCTIVITY,RETURNS TO SCALE AND FARM SIZE IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE: SOME RECENT EVIDENCE*

A perceptible technological transformation has been under way in India during the last few years. The output of total foodgrains increased sharply between 1967-68 and 1970-71 over previous years. There is enough evidence to show that the technological change has resulted in an upward shift in production functions for major crops, especially for wheat.     

ESTIMATING THE DEMAND FOR WATER IN COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE*

The foundation of the demand for water in agriculture is the water response functions of the various crops grown. As the productivity of water is largely determined by the lime at which a crop is irrigated, both intra-seasonal and seasonal demand schedules for water exist for the firm and so for the region. The efficient interregional allocation and pricing of water between users may be assessed using spatial equilibrium models. While a profit maximising objective may be valid for the firm, as the level of an analysis moves to the regional or the inter-regional complex, increasing attention must be paid to non-economic goals which must be incorporated within societies' objective. La demande ?eau dans ?agriculture se base sur les fonctions du besoin ?eau des récolies différents. Tandis que la productivité de ?eau est déterminé en grande parlie selon la saison pendant laquelle une récolle est irriguée, des programmes de demande intra-saisonnier et saisonnier pour ?eau existe pour ?exploitation, ainsi que pour la région. ?allocation efficace au niveau inter-régional et ?établissement ?un prix pour ?eau parmi les utilisateurs peuvent être évalués en se servant de modèles ?equilibre spatial. Tandis qu'un but de maximisation de profit peut être valide pour ?exploitation. au moment ou une analyse comprend le systems régional ou inter-regional, il faut aussi considérer les buts non-économiques qui doivent etre incorporés dans les objectifs sociaux.     

FORECASTING FOR AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE

The paper provides a review of the objectives of forecasts and of the techniques for generating forecasts in the context of agriculture. Forecasts provide information to facilitate decision making. The techniques are evaluated in terms of assumptions about the processes generating the forecast variables, their relative requirements for time, data and other resources, and their relative forecast accuracy. An evaluation of naive, informal model and econometric model forecasts of Australian agricultural commodity prices and production levels is reported.     

长沙市有机农业发展路径研究

发展有机农业是建设“两型社会”,保障农产品优质安全供应的重大举措。该文以长沙市为样本,研究探讨“两型社会”建设背景下大、中城市郊区有机农业发展的路径。研究分析了长沙市有机农业发展呈现出“三多三少”的特点、具有4个有利条件和4个不利因素,明确了渐进式推动农业由传统农业向无公害农业、绿色农业、有机农业有序发展的思路,围绕实现5个方面的发展目标,提出重点发展水稻、蔬菜、水果、茶叶、畜产品、水产品等六大有机农业产业,突出建好先导区和长沙县北部两大有机农业综合示范区,阐述了六大产业和两大示范区的建设布局、建设方向和建设目标,提出发展有机农业,必须抓好产地环境普查、区划和环境综合整治,建设好生态防控、有机肥供应、标准化生产和产品质量追溯四大体系,强化质量监督,制定落实产业发展和产品优惠补贴政策。     

攀枝花市立体农业发展研究

因地制宜探索发展立体农业是实现地区农业发展,改善农业资源利用状况,提高农业综合生产能 力和产品竞争力的有效途径。四川省攀枝花市地处川西南攀西大裂谷,发展立体农业气候条件优势明显, 正逐步发展成为中国西部地区最具有代表性的南亚热带经济作物生产基地。该文介绍了攀枝花市立体农业 发展所依托的自然资源情况,并概述了其农业经济的发展状况,对立体农业发展中的特色水果、早春蔬 菜、烤烟、畜牧、生物医药、特色观光休闲农业等几个主要方面的发展方向进行了探讨,并对攀枝花市立 体农业发展要解决的主要问题提出了对策建议。     

PRODUCT MARKET DISTORTIONS AND THE RETURNS TO BROILER CHICKEN RESEARCH IN CANADA

The economic returns to Canadian federal broiler chicken research between 1968 and 1984 were estimated using the economic surplus approach. The impact of distortions in the product market and of the excess burden of taxes on the net benefits of research and the distribution of gross benefits between producers and consumers were assessed. Rates of return to research investments at the margin over this period were estimated to be between 52% and 60%. All of the benefits of this research have accrued to consumers, and producers have actually been made worse off by broiler research under the existing regime of supply management.