The science of impact and the impact of agricultural science

Research impact and its measurement are of increasing importance. This is particularly significant for agricultural science, which is expected to produce solutions to future challenges that will arise from population growth, climate change and ecosystem degradation. Much econometric effort has been devoted to analysis of investment in agricultural research and its effects on farm productivity. This analysis, reviewed here, has produced a consensus suggesting that returns are high, although they are achieved only after long lags. However, policymakers perceive the occurrence of impacts as too few, and poorly targeted with respect to their needs. An attribution gap between the outcomes of agricultural research and how they reach farmers has motivated evaluation of the process of transmission and translation of agricultural research outputs into ultimate impacts. This gap can be narrowed by Participatory Impact Pathway Analysis, implemented mostly so far in low income countries. However, it is a costly and cognitively complex approach. Content analysis of the UK’s 2014 REF Impact Case Studies uncovers the mind set of researchers and their managers regarding the description of impact and how it is supposed to occur. This reveals a nascent conservatism that focuses on research that can be shown to have impact, rather than research impact itself. From the overall discussion it can be concluded that the impact evaluation of agricultural science raises more profound issues than either efficiency or transparency. Confirmation bias threatens impact evaluation, principally by distracting from other important stories about how and why the ultimate effects occur, but also by transforming the nature of the process itself. Methodological pluralism, with greater integration and triangulation between different evaluation approaches, is a promising means of resolving these problems

Natural Resources Accounting: a Literature Review.

Natural resources are essential for production and consumption, maintenance of life-support systems, as well as having intrinsic value in existence for intergenerational and other reasons. It can be argued that natural capital should be treated in a similar manner to man-made capital in accounting terms, so that the ability to generate income in the future is reduced, if the stock of natural capital falls. By failing to account reductions in the stock of natural resources, standard measures of national income misrepresent economic growth. The paper analyses an extension to the conventional economic accounts, which treats the services and depreciation of environmental resources, and marketed assets, in a manner consistent with neoclassical economic principles. The paper also discusses the accounting process that can contribute to the formulation of economic and environmental policy.NATURAL RESOURCES ; CAPITAL ; ACCOUNTING

Natural Resources Accounting: A Literature Review

Natural resources are essential for production and consumption, maintenance of life-support systems, as well as having intrinsic value in existence for intergenerational and other reasons. It can be argued that natural capital should be treated in a similar manner to man-made capital in accounting terms, so that the ability to generate income in the future is reduced, if the stock of natural capital falls. By failing to account reductions in the stock of natural resources, standard measures of national income misrepresent economic growth. The paper analyses an extension to the conventional economic accounts, which treats the services and depreciation of environmental resources, and marketed assets, in a manner consistent with neoclassical economic principles. The paper also discusses the accounting process that can contribute to the formulation of economic and environmental policy.Natural Resources, Capital, Accounting EDIRC Provider-Institution: RePEc:edi:smlatau

Total Factor Productivity as a Measure of Weak Sustainability

Analysis of agricultural production generally ignores the undesirable outputs (such as soil erosion) that are jointly produced with desirable, marketable outputs. In this paper we present preliminary TFP results incorporating national level data for off-site damage costs for soil erosion for broadacre agriculture between 1953 and 1994. Following the approach introduced by Repetto et al. (1996) our revised TFP estimates provide interesting results. When we assume that damage costs per ton of soil erosion are constant our TFP estimates are higher than estimates omitting the undesirable output. This result can be explained by the fact that the rate of soil erosion grew slower than output increased or the rate of soil erosion declined and agricultural output remained constant. Defining weak sustainability (i.e., allowing substitution between natural and human capital) as non-declining TFP our results indicate that Australian broadacre agriculture is sustainable. Note our results are only preliminary because there are other externalities that we do not include in the analysis and the existing soil erosion damage cost data is very weak

Measuring Northern Victorian fruit grower expectations of packing services: preliminary results

This paper reports preliminary findings in ongoing research aimed at an understanding of the dynamics of customer satisfaction formation in distribution channels within the economically important Northern Victorian fruit industry. This work aims to correct deficiencies in the current literature concerning distribution channel satisfaction formation, via a longitudinal study involving the experiences and perceptions of the various channel members. Work commenced with a focus on grower satisfaction formation. Qualitative work established that growers nominate a set of eight elements of expectations. These have been operationalised in measures using likert scales and included in the first stage of a survey of Northern Victorian fruit growers. Initial findings appear to support the view that stable and parsimonious measurement of growers’ expectations can be achieved. Significantly, stable and parsimonious measures of global expectations and of ‘outcome’ and ‘process’ dimensions of expectations appear to be achievable. However the small number of returns currently to hand means that such findings should be viewed with caution

Total Factor Productivity as a Measure of Weak Sustainability

Analysis of agricultural production generally ignores the undesirable outputs (such as soil erosion) that are jointly produced with desirable, marketable outputs. In this paper we present preliminary TFP results incorporating national level data for off-site damage costs of soil erosion for broad acre agriculture between 1953 and 1994. Following the approach introduced by Repetto et al. (1996), our revised TFP estimates provide interesting results. When we assume that damage costs per ton of soil erosion are constant, our TFP estimates are higher than estimates omitting the undesirable output. This result can be explained by the fact that the rate of soil erosion grew more slowly than output increased, or the rate of soil erosion declined and agricultural output remained constant. Defining weak sustainability (i.e., allowing substitution between natural and human capital) as non-declining TFP, our results indicate that Australian broad acre agriculture is sustainable. Note our results are only preliminary because there are other externalities that we do not include in the analysis and the existing soil erosion damage cost data is very weak.undesirable outputs, total factor productivity, non-declining TFP. EDIRC Provider-Institution: RePEc:edi:smlatau

Expectations and satisfaction in channel member relationships in the Victorian (Australia) fruit industry

The paper reports findings of research into the dynamics of customer satisfaction formation amongst fruit producers and their distribution channel(s), within the economically important northern Victorian (Australia) fruit industry. The paper suggests reasons why previous approaches to the issue of satisfaction in channel member relationships, which typically utilize constructs of 'economic' and 'non-economic' satisfaction, may usefully be supplemented by application of the 'disconfirmation of expectations' model. The research actually tests a modification of the traditional disconfirmation model that incorporates dimensions of 'outcome' and 'process' at the levels of expectations, performance and disconfirmation-a 'dualistic' model. This had previously been tested only in a radically different business-to business-context, that of advertising creative services. The findings suggest that satisfactory measurement of growers' expectations can be achieved. They also suggest that the disconfirmation model does appear to apply in this previously untested service context, whether unitary measures of expectations and performance, or the dualistic interpretation of expectations/performance, are utilized

The Structure and Dynamics of Expectations and Customer Satisfaction in Channel Member Relationships in the Victorian Fruit Industry

Many studies in channel member relationships have hitherto focussed on factors such as trust, commitment, uncertainty, dependence and situational factors. What research has addressed satisfaction in channel member has focussed on constructs of economic and non-economic satisfaction. This paper advances several reasons why these approaches may usefully be supplemented with research attempting to apply the well established dis-confirmation of expectations model, with its familiar constructs of expectations, perceived performance, dis-confirmation and customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Further, the paper proposes that a modification of the traditional dis-confirmation model incorporating dimensions of outcome and process previously tested in a business to business context, may be insightful in this context, despite radical differences in the nature of the product. A program of research is proposed in the context of both upstream and downstream distribution channel relationships amongst fruit producers and their distribution channel(s) in Northern Victoria. Qualitative and empirical studies of a longitudinal nature are proposed.Relationship, dis-confirmation, satisfaction, dissatisfaction, distribution channel EDIRC Provider-Institution: RePEc:edi:smlatau