Agri-environmental conservation – the case for an environmental levy

Recent environmental assessments have highlighted the extent of land degradation in Australia and the significant costs involved in addressing it. With projected investment costs running into tens of billions of dollars, it is not surprising that greater attention is now being focussed on who should pay. One idea gathering significant momentum has been the imposition of an environmental levy. Such a levy would raise public funds to be spent on resource degradation issues and has been proposed to work through the taxation system in a similar fashion to the Medicare levy, albeit for a more limited 10 year period. The paper assesses the arguments behind the imposition of an environmental levy and considers some of the issues associated with its effective implementation. Particular challenges in the establishment of environmental priorities, public and private attributes of environmental problems and the institutional arrangements for levy collection and management are identified and discussed.Environment, cost-sharing, property rights, Environmental Economics and Policy,

The implications of policy settings on land use and agricultural technology adoption in North-West India

The irrigated rice-wheat cropping system is the predominant and most profitable farming system in north-west India, especially in Punjab. However, there are growing concerns about the environmental effects of the system, particularly with the practice of burning rice stubbles, due to its adverse effects on human health and air pollution. In this paper we consider the wide array of policy settings that tend to favour current land uses and management practices and their impact on the farming system over time. As part of an ACIAR-funded project, we assess the significance of these policies with a view to considering what additional or alternative policies could be put in place to encourage the adoption of approaches or technologies directly concerned with reducing the practice of stubble burning. We conclude that many of these policy settings limit the gains from technology adoption and might be better addressed prior to considering policies aimed at specific technological solutions.agricultural policy, air pollution, stubble burning, technology adoption, India, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Land Economics/Use, Political Economy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Trends in Research, Productivity Growth and Competitiveness in Agriculture in New Zealand and Australia

Investment in R&D has long been regarded as an important source of productivity growth in New Zealand and Australian agriculture. Perhaps because research lags are long, current investment in R&D is monitored closely. In this paper trends in public investment in R&D and in productivity growth are reviewed. Investment in R&D has been flat in both countries although in recent years investment in New Zealand has increased. Nevertheless research intensity in Australia has been significantly higher than that in New Zealand. Productivity growth is also likely to have been higher. Econometric evidence about the sources of productivity growth is rarely clear. We develop some scenarios about the importance of domestic and foreign R&D and other sources of productivity growth and find that returns to investments in domestic research in both countries are likely to have been in the order of 15-20 percent.Productivity, research and development, research evaluation, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Managing and Sharing the Risks of Drought in Australia

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Bridging the Gap Between Science, Economics and Policy to Develop and Implement a Pilot Market Based Instrument for Soil Carbon

Increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) has potential to offset greenhouse gas emissions, but the scope for on-farm carbon sequestration is poorly understood. A pilot scheme was developed in Central West NSW, Australia to trial the use of a market-based instrument to encourage farmers to increase soil organic carbon levels. The pilot considered the relationship between land use, management practices and soil carbon levels; offered alternative contract designs to attract landholders; and developed monitoring and reporting protocols. The pilot was rolled-out in 2011 and 2012 and had 11 successful tenders with an average price of $A37 per t CO2-e. The results of this conservation tender will assist the design of future programs aimed at encouraging mitigation effort from the agricultural sector

Agri-environmental conservation – the case for an environmental levy

Recent environmental assessments have highlighted the extent of land degradation in Australia and the significant costs involved in addressing it. With projected investment costs running into tens of billions of dollars, it is not surprising that greater attention is now being focussed on who should pay. One idea gathering significant momentum has been the imposition of an environmental levy. Such a levy would raise public funds to be spent on resource degradation issues and has been proposed to work through the taxation system in a similar fashion to the Medicare levy, albeit for a more limited 10 year period. The paper assesses the arguments behind the imposition of an environmental levy and considers some of the issues associated with its effective implementation. Particular challenges in the establishment of environmental priorities, public and private attributes of environmental problems and the institutional arrangements for levy collection and management are identified and discussed

BALANCING TRADE-OFFS IN THE PROVISION OF ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWS IN THE SNOWY RIVER

The NSW, Victorian and Commonwealth Governments are in the process of corporatising the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme. As part of this process a water inquiry was established to assist in the determination of the environmental operating conditions of the new business, Snowy Hydro Ltd. The Inquiry’s principal task was to examine the range of environmental issues arising from the current pattern of water flows caused by the Scheme and to develop a comprehensive range of costed options to address these issues. Central to the Inquiry’s deliberations is the re-allocation of water from irrigated agriculture and electricity generation to the Snowy River catchment. This paper focuses on trade-off issues associated with such a re-allocation and the difficulties involved in achieving a balance that improves net social welfare. The findings of the paper suggest that further work is required by Government and highlights a need for an ongoing process to manage resource use trade-offs over time

MEETING THE MDBC CAP IN THE BARWON-DARLING RIVER

Reform to the Australian water industry has received considerable attention in recent years. This can be partly attributed to growing community concerns about environmental degradation, increasing competition from extractive water users and greater focus by governments on micro-economic reform. One of the key reforms shared across a number of States is the implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission’s Cap on irrigation diversions. In recent years, the Cap for the Barwon-Darling River has been exceeded and there is pressure on the NSW Government to address the situation. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the issues associated with Cap implementation in the Barwon-Darling River and to discuss the methodology being used to assess the farm level economic impacts of alternative options proposed to achieve Cap. The paper provides an overview of alternative approaches to achieve Cap, the development of representative farm models to assess agricultural effects and a description of some preliminary results of our analysis