Productivity Growth and the Returns from Public Investment in R&D in Australian Broadacre Agriculture

Investment in R&D has long been regarded as an important source of productivity growth in Australian agriculture. Perhaps because research lags are long, current investment in R&D is monitored closely. Investment in R&D has been flat while productivity growth has remained strong, relative both to other sectors of the Australian economy and to the agricultural sectors of other countries. Such productivity growth, at a time when the decline in terms of trade facing Australian farmers has slowed, may have enhanced the competitiveness of Australian agriculture. The econometric results presented here suggest no evidence of a decline in the returns from research from the 15- 40 percent per annum range estimated by Mullen and Cox. In fact the marginal impact of research increases with research over the range of investment levels experienced from 1953 to 2000, a finding which lends support to the view that there is underinvestment in agricultural research. These results were obtained from econometric models which maintain strong assumptions about how investments in research and extension translate into changes in TFP. Hence some caution in interpreting the results is warranted.Productivity, research and development, research evaluation, Productivity Analysis,

Statewide Water Planning: The Georgia Experience

Several states in the southeast have acknowledged the need for statewide water planning but have yet to act. In contrast, Georgia is on the cusp of completing the Georgia Comprehensive Statewide Water Management Plan (SWMP). The SWMP provides for resource assessments, forecasts, and regional water planning. Over the past 3 years, an extensive effort has been made to implement the SWMP. This article describes the planning process undertaken in Georgia. Several of the recommended practices are also highlighted and critiqued with respect to their potential to affect aggregate water use in the state.residential water use, water management, water planning, irrigation, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q25, Q28, R58,

Domestic Grain Market Reform In China: The Contribution of Economic Policy Research Funded by ACIAR Revisited

Mullen (2004,2005) conducted an impact assessment of two ACIAR funded economics research projects enquiring into domestic grain market reform in China. The benefit cost ratio to ACIAR was estimated to be in the range 5:1 to 33:1. The impact assessment was conducted when grain policy was viewed as being in a period of retrenchment rather than reform and hence the assessment was ex ante in nature. Since then the methodology for estimating nominal rates of assistance in China has been modified and the late 90s is now seen as a period when reform continued despite the professed policy stance. It seems opportune to revisit Mullen’s original impact assessment to assess the extent of welfare gains actually achieved.impact assessment, China grain market reform, welfare analysis,

Waveguide physical modeling of vocal tract acoustics: flexible formant bandwidth control from increased model dimensionality

Digital waveguide physical modeling is often used as an efficient representation of acoustical resonators such as the human vocal tract. Building on the basic one-dimensional (1-D) Kelly-Lochbaum tract model, various speech synthesis techniques demonstrate improvements to the wave scattering mechanisms in order to better approximate wave propagation in the complex vocal system. Some of these techniques are discussed in this paper, with particular reference to an alternative approach in the form of a two-dimensional waveguide mesh model. Emphasis is placed on its ability to produce vowel spectra similar to that which would be present in natural speech, and how it improves upon the 1-D model. Tract area function is accommodated as model width, rather than translated into acoustic impedance, and as such offers extra control as an additional bounding limit to the model. Results show that the two-dimensional (2-D) model introduces approximately linear control over formant bandwidths leading to attainable realistic values across a range of vowels. Similarly, the 2-D model allows for application of theoretical reflection values within the tract, which when applied to the 1-D model result in small formant bandwidths, and, hence, unnatural sounding synthesized vowels

A Modern Application of Hedonics for Valuing Irrigation

Land Economics/Use,

Matched Thermistors for Microwave Power Meters-Patent

Matched thermistors for microwave power meters with compensation for temperature change

Farming Systems in the Central West of NSW: An Economic Analysis

The objectives of this report have been to describe important farming systems in the Central West of NSW, to gain some insights into current financial performance and to examine in more detail the role of pastures in these farming systems at a time when the profitability of wool growing has been low relative to grain growing. While farms and farming systems vary considerably across the region, a majority can be broadly grouped into a mixed livestock and cropping category. Although there is also significant variability within this category, two representative farms and farming systems were developed for the region with the assistance from a small group of farmers and extension staff from NSW Agriculture. One represents the farms and farming systems east of Condobolin and the other represents the farms and farming systems to the west of Condobolin. Whole-farm budget models have been developed for each to provide a description of the farms in this region and an indication of their current profitability. They are useful to give an indication of how farm income might be altered by the introduction of some new technology, a new enterprise such a pulse crop, or an alternative management practice. This report presents some examples of their application but importantly it has provided a template for the development of additional whole-farm budgets for alternative farming systems in this and other regions. Using the whole-farm budget representing farms east of Condobolin, and a linear programming model, PRISM Condobolin, this report shows that the optimal length of pasture is fairly insensitive to changing market signals for both cropping and livestock commodities. It also shows that although length of pasture is insensitive, the optimal mix of enterprises does change, highlighting the importance of considering the interactions between enterprises in whole-farm analysis.Industrial Organization, Production Economics,

Productivity growth and the returns from public investment in R&D in Australian broadacre agriculture

Investment in R&D has long been regarded as an important source of productivity growth in Australian agriculture. Perhaps because research lags are long, current investment in R&D is monitored closely. Investment in R&D has been flat while productivity growth has remained strong, relative both to other sectors of the Australian economy and to the agricultural sectors of other countries. Such productivity growth, at a time when the decline in terms of trade facing Australian farmers has slowed, may have enhanced the competitiveness of Australian agriculture. The econometric results presented here suggest no evidence of a decline in the returns from research from the 15 to 40 per cent per annum range estimated by Mullen and Cox. In fact the marginal impact of research increases with research over the range of investment levels experienced from 1953 to 2000, a finding which lends support to the view that there is underinvestment in agricultural research. These results were obtained from econometric models which maintain strong assumptions about how investments in research and extension translate into changes in TFP. Hence some caution in interpreting the results is warranted.productivity, research and development, research evaluation, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Use of the Hedonic Method to Estimate Lake Sedimentation Impacts on Property Values in Mountain Park and Roswell, GA

Metropolitan Atlanta has experienced explosive population growth in the past few decades, which has resulted in rapid residential growth. The City of Roswell is one the best examples of residential growth on the urban fringe of Atlanta, with its housing stock increasing by more than 50 percent from 1990 to 2000. Stormwater runoff created from these development sites is expected to be causing sedimentation accumulation in lakes within Roswell and a neighboring, downstream wildlife refuge located in the City of Mountain Park. Because sedimentation tends to fill-in and shrink lakes, our results provide some indication of the potential property damages associated with sedimentation. Furthermore, our results provide evidence that lake value is not monotonically increasing with lake size, which is believed to be due to the influence that geographic, environmental, and social factors have on the degree to which lakes add value to housing prices.Land Economics/Use,

Spatial and Temporal On-Farm Risk Management - Crop Production Scheduling and Index Insurance Strategies

An agronomic crop growth model, Decision Support System for Agro-Technology Transfer (DSSAT), is used to find optimal crop management strategies for cotton production in Mitchell, Miller, and Lee Counties in Georgia during the past 10 years. Planting date and irrigation threshold are the two variables optimized to maximize farmer's expected utility. A decreasing absolute risk aversion - constant relative risk aversion (DARA-CRRA) utility function is used to examine crop management decision that can be influenced by changes in inter-temporal risk behavior. Comparison is made from management perspective - one is dynamic crop management strategy that varies each year; one is static (constant) strategy over 10 years. Based on the best crop management strategies, index insurance products are designed to help farmers further reduce production risk. The impact of geographical basis risk was assessed by comparing the risk reduction generated from index insurance contracts based on different weather stations; the impact of temporal basis risk is assessed by allowing separate contracts to be purchased for different sub-periods during the entire period.Irrigation, Planting Date, Risk Management, Weather Derivative Contract, Basis Risk, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Financial Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,