Newsletter on bioeconomic and social
research on
Sustainability and Economics in Agriculture
Issue 9, June 2001
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Newsletter on bioeconomic and social
research on |
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Editor:
Dave Pannell, University of Western Australia, email David.Pannell@uwa.edu.au SEA Project main funder: Grains Research and Development Corporation Address of the SEA News web site: http://www1.crcsalinity.com.au/newsletter/sea/ |
In This Issue
Editorial
E-letters
In
Brief
New
Cooperative Research Centre for salinity - Salinity policy task
force in Western Australia - OECD report on environmental impacts
of agriculture
Articles
A multi-species model for
Integrated weed management
The economics of desalination
Commercial tree crops to achieve greenhouse
gas neutrality
Oil mallee must look to multi-product
industries
Policy
Forum
Dryland salinity: Inevitable, inequitable, intractable?
Regular
Bits and Pieces
News and coming events -
Overview of the SEA Project - People in the SEA team -
Publications available
It has been a very eventful time for the SEA project since the last issue of SEA news. I've been involved in an intensive round of presentations and meetings about salinity around the country, focussing on the need for a different approach to salinity policy. The arguments have generally been well received. I have been particularly encouraged by the positive responses of many farmers.
The Policy Forum article from the last issue, "Salinity policy: a tale of of fallacies, misconceptions and hidden assumptions", continues to have a life of its own. It has been printed in full or in summary in a diverse range of publications, including The Bulletin, Agricultural Science, Groundcover, Landline, and Agribusiness Decision, and it continues to generate emails a plenty.
In January, the creation of a new Cooperative Research Centre for Plant-Based Management of Dryland Salinity was announced. I will lead one of the five programs of the CRC, the Economic and Social Assessment Program. The SEA Project will be closely aligned with the CRC, and it may be that SEA News evolves into an outlet for the CRC. See "In Brief" for more.
David Pannell, June 2001
Thanks for
writing the paper "Salinity Policy: A Tale of Fallacies,
Misconceptions and Hidden Assumptions." As a revegetation
worker of many years I think it is spot on and I hope that it can
be promoted and used to influence policy. Keep up the good work.
Greg Dalton, SA
I have just
read your article on salinity policy. I have an article in the
June Australian Farm Journal on the native vegetation
conservation situation in NSW which contains many of the same
messages. The NSW Government has set up a number of committees
(vegetation, water, catchment management) who have the difficult
(impossible?) task of developing resource plans and targets. They
readily admit they may have to pluck targets out of the air
because the scientific and economic tools/frameworks to do
otherwise do not exist for many of the issues they need to
investigate. Consultation cannot substitute for good analysis and
research. As you say in your article, farmers are becoming jaded
with the poor outcomes of consultation alone (as are rural
communities with consultation being used as the primary solution
to regional economic development). The desire to be seen to be
doing something is winning the day and I fear a lot of money is
wasted.
David Thompson, CARE Pty Ltd
New Cooperative Research
Centre for Plant-Based Management of Dryland Salinity. This new Cooperative
Research Centre has the aim of developing new plant types and new
farming systems which are profitable to farmers, and provide
additional benefits from salinity prevention or make use of
salinised land. It has five programs of work, including a program
for "Economic and Social Assessment":
www.crcsalinity.com
Salinity Task Force. The Western Australian
State Government has created a "Salinity Task Force" to
review the government's salinity strategy and "to provide a
more targeted and cohesive response to Western Australia's
salinity threat". David Pannell from the SEA Project is a
member of the task force. For background, terms of reference, and
information on how to make a submission, see http://www.ministers.wa.gov.au/edwards/Features/salinity.htm Notice: The
articles in this issue of SEA News were completed before the
commencement of the task force. In articles authored or
co-authored by David Pannell, any views expressed in relation to
salinity policy represent his personal views and not those of the
task force.
New OECD report on
environmental impacts of agriculture. Many OECD countries
(including Australia) have introduced agri-environmental measures
to help improve environmental performance. Nevertheless, this
report concludes that levels of environmental damage caused by
farming remain high. A free version of the Executive Summary of
the Report and further information on the OECD agri-environmental
indicators work is available at: http://www.oecd.org/agr/env/indicators.htm
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A
multi-species bio-economic model for integrated weed
management by Marta
Monjardino, Dave Pannell and Stephen Powles "Weed populations in crops generally include several weed species." |
A multi-species
version of the bio-economic model Resistance and Integrated
Management (RIM) has been developed to deal with the complexities
involved in the long-term integrated management of Lolium
rigidum Gaud. (rigid ryegrass) and Raphanus raphanistrum L.(wild
radish), which dominate and co-exist in southern Australia. In
this paper, we present a review of the existing options on how to
model multi-species competition in order to select the best
approach for incorporation in the RIM framework. Furthermore, we
show how we have extended the original single-species Ryegrass
RIM model to include other aspects of R. raphanistrum
biology as well as a set of extra weed management practices used
to control this weed species. The Multi-species RIM model can be
used to evaluate weed management scenarios of co-existing
herbicide resistant species.
For the full article, see this web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap0105.htm (185K)
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The
economics of desalination and its potential application
in Australia by Tennille Winter, Dave
Pannell and Laura McCann "Prices charged for traditional water supplies generally remain cheaper than the full cost of desalinating water. However, there are ways that the gap might be closed." |
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It appears that,
in Australia, based on current prices charged for water,
desalination is currently only competitive with traditional water
sources in remote locations. There are two ways that this might
change. There may be a continuation of advances in technology for
desalination to make better use of solar energy and/or to improve
the efficiency of current desalination systems. Alternatively,
the true cost of traditional fresh water sources may rise. Even
if the former does not occur, the latter appears certain, due to:
losses of some traditional sources (due to salinisation), the
high cost of preventing salinisation of other traditional
sources, and an increasing demand for fresh water as population
continues to grow. Desalination appears to be an option deserving
serious analysis and investigation.
For the full article, see this web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap0102.htm (32K)
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Commercial
tree crops to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality in
south-western Australia by Liz Petersen, Steven
Schilizzi and David Bennett "A Kyoto Protocol that does not allow for accreditation of commercial plantations as carbon sinks imposes heavy costs on the economies of some ratifying countries." |
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In the presence of
greenhouse gas emission restrictions, the accreditation of tree
crops can allow predominantly grazing systems of south-western
Australia to remain profitable where the farms would otherwise
fail. We argue that a Protocol that encourages tree planting is
more likely to be successful, has other benefits such as salinity
abatement, and is more likely to encourage greater innovation of
green technologies than one that disallows such accreditation.
For the full article, see this web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap0103.htm (134K)
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Oil
mallee must look to multi-product industries by Don Cooper,
John Bartle, Steven Schilizzi and Dave Pannell "Only the integrated mallee processing plant will be able to produce oil at the price required to enter the industrial solvent market." |
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Oil mallees,
various species of eucalypt chosen for high leaf cineole
concentration and coppicing habit, are being developed in Western
Australia as a potential woody perennial crop in the lower
rainfall agricultural regions. A 1999 feasibility study of
integrated mallee processing (the concurrent production of
eucalyptus oil, electricity and activated carbon from mallee
feedstocks) showed that it could be commercially viable. This
article reports on further analysis to determine whether
integrated mallee processing plants could produce eucalyptus oil
at a price suitable for the industrial solvent market. We
conclude that it could. We also find that a single-product
industry based only on oil-prodection would probably not be
viable given projected market prices for the oil.
For the full article, see this web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap0104.htm (64K)
| Dryland
salinity: inevitable, inequitable, intractable? by Dave Pannell
"Direct public investments in salinity prevention need to be carefully targeted and site-specific, rather than distributed broadly across rural areas " |
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This paper was
presented at the AARES 2001 conference in Adelaide in January
2001. It provides an overview of key issues affecting policies
for dryland salinity. It covers aspects of hydrogeology, farmer
perceptions and preferences regarding salinity, farm-level
economics of salinity management practices, spill-over benefits
and costs from salinity management, and salinity politics. The
aim is to identify policy directions which will provide the best
combination of technical effectiveness and cost effectiveness.
The technical challenge of preventing salinity is far greater
than previously recognised. The farm-level economics of currently
available management practices for salinity prevention are
adverse in many situations. Off-site benefits from on-farm
practices are often small and long-delayed. Past national
salinity policies have been seriously flawed. While current
policy proposals include positive elements, they have not
sufficiently escaped from the past.
For the full article, see this web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap0101.htm (128K)
Regular Bits and Pieces
News and Coming
Events
Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, Annual Conference, 13-15 February 2002, Canberra.
Conference: "Dealing With Salinity in Wheatbelt Valleys: Processes, Prospects and Practical Options". Merredin, Western Australia, 30 July to 1 August 2001. http://www.avonicm.org.au/avonicm/wbeltvalleys
State Landcare Conference 2001, "Partnerships and Diversity", 11-14 September 2001, Mandurah. http://www.avonicm.org.au/avonicm/lcconference or http://www.ca.com.au/~keynote/conf_pge/cnf_landcare.html
Overview of the SEA
Project
This project has a strong integrative focus, bringing together several sustainability issues and considering their biological, physical and economic implications at the whole-farm level. The main issues being researched in the project are soil salinisation, soil acidification, management of herbicide-resistant weeds, farmer adoption of sustainable practices and the economics of monitoring sustainability indicators. Main funding: Grains Research & Development Corporation. Commencement: 01-Aug-97 Completion: 30-Jun-02
People in the SEA Team
Publications
available
As
well as the articles summarised in this Newsletter, the SEA
Project has a range of publications available. A list is shown at
the following web page address. You can view and print most of
the papers directly in your browser.
Web page:
http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/seapprs.htm
Papers
that focus on agricultural extension, and adoption and diffusion
of innovations in agriculture:
Web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/adoppprs.htm
Papers
that focus on dryland salinity:
Web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/saltpprs.htm
Other issues of SEA News
Copyright note: Some articles in SEA news have subsequently been submitted for publication in journals or books. SEA News contains pre-publication versions of these articles. They have not been subject to peer review, and copyright rests with the authors. When an article is formally published, the version on the SEA News web site is not updated to the published version, as this would violate copyright. However, the citation shown on the web page is updated to allow readers to identify the published version. Readers are encouraged to make use of the material present on the web site, provided that its source is acknowledged. Readers who wish to make direct quotes from an article in SEA News should not attribute the quote to a more formal (e.g. journal) published version of the paper without checking the published version, since the quote may have been alterred or even omitted from the published version.
If you have any comments about SEA News or wish to make additions to or deletions from our mailing list, contact David.Pannell@uwa.edu.au
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Research and Development Corporation |
