Newsletter on bioeconomic and social
research on
Sustainability and Economics in Agriculture
Issue 6, April 2000
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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
In
Brief
Herbicide resistance model selling well. Looking back from 2020.
Workshop on sustainability indicators. Lessons for agriculture
from health "extension". Mallee Sustainable Farming Project web
page.
Policy
Forum:
Salt
levy? The Complex Case for Public Funding of Salinity
(detailed article plus newspaper article)
Salinity Off-Site Effects (reprise)
(newspaper article)
Radio Interview on Salinity Policy
Article:
Community Attitudes to Land
Degradation Issues and Responsibilities in Western Australia
Ideas
and Lessons on Sustainability from Overseas:
Sustainability Indicators for Natural
Resource Management & Policy
Regular
Bits and Pieces
News and Coming Events -
Overview of the SEA Project - People in the SEA Team -
Publications available
During 1999, there were approximately 31,000 hits on pages of the SEA News web site, including both the web versions of the newsletters and the full-length versions of the articles. This is an outstanding result for a site containing what many would consider fairly dry material, so we are grateful to you for your high and continuing interest.
Recent months have seen a flurry of media activity in the SEA Project, particularly for your editor. This issue includes copies of two recent articles from the morning newspaper here in Western Australia and a national radio interview, all about salinity.
Sadly, I must report that Sally Marsh received an offer she couldn't refuse from the University of Sydney and has moved on to work full-time on a project focussed on Vietnam. We will miss Sally's excellent contributions to the SEA project, although they are likely to continue for a little while as she finishes things off. This issue contains another contribution from her, this time on community attitudes to land degradation.
Herbicide Resistance Model
Selling Well. We reported last issue that the RIM (Ryegrass
Integrated Management) model had been publicly released. Since
then it has been selling very well to farmers, consultants and
agribusiness, with well over 100 copis now in use. We developed
RIM in collaboration with the Western Australian Herbicide
Resistance Initiative (WAHRI) and Agriculture Western Australia.
For more information about RIM, and an order form, see the RIM
web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/rim.htm
Looking Back From 2020. Your editor is currently
serving as President of the Australian Agricultural and Resource
Economics Society. In January, as part of the AARES 2000
conference, I invited Mike Young of CSIRO to present a paper on
trends in policy for agri-environmental issues in Australia. He
took a novel approach of placing himself in the year 2020 and
telling the story of what had happened in the past 20 years. You
can download Mike's paper from the following site: http://www.clw.csiro.au/research/agriculture/economic/History.doc
Workshop on Sustainability
Indicators. There will be an important workshop at the
University of New England on July 11 and 12 2000, on the topic:
"Application of sustainability indicators to the management
of soil and catchment health in the northern grains region [of
New South Wales]." Speakers have been invited from a wide
range of institutions and backgrounds, and include David Pannell.
Inquiries to jan.edwards@agric.nsw.gov.au
Lessons for Agriculture from
Health "Extension". Agricultural resource
management is not the only sphere where we are sometimes
concerned with changing the behaviour of a large group of people.
A recent broadcast of the "Health Report" on
Australia's Radio National outlined some of the lessons from
efforts to change peoples' behaviour to improve health. Some of
the results are quite startling and deserve to be carefully
considered for their relevance to agriculture. See: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/health.htm (8K)
Mallee Sustainable
Farming Project web site. We let you know about the Mallee
Sustainable Farming Project back in SEA News issue
#2. Now the project has its own web site, which you can visit at:
http://www.msfp.org.au
| Dryland
Salinity Policy in Australia by Dave Pannell
"It would also be easy to spend the funds in a way that has virtually no sustained benefit." |
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1. Salt Levy? The Complex Case for Public Funding of Salinity
A large amount of public money is spent in attempts to manage dryland salinity in Western Australia, and the perceived need for even greater funding has led to public discussion of a possible "salt levy". Farmer groups argue that any new money should all be passed on to farmers to help them implement on-ground works. From the evidence of hydrological and economic research, and experience with large-scale implementation of salinity treatments, it is clear that meeting these demands from farmers would be highly undesirable if we wish to achieve the greatest possible reduction in salinity costs. The most effective uses of public funds for salinity would include, in different circumstances:
It is also important to recognise that for some threatened assets, the circumstances are such that no public investment of any type could be justified. A large expenditure of public funds for salinity can easily be justified on the basis that, if it is well spent, it will avoid substantially greater public costs in the near and distant future. Unfortunately, it would also be easy to spend the funds in a way that has virtually no sustained benefit. Providing public funds as subsidies to farmers for measures that are not effective (e.g. revegetation of small areas that have not been strategically selected) will not only be wasteful, but also morale sapping for the farmers. We have also tended to devote too many resources to activities intended to inform and persuade farmers to adopt new farm practices, before we have developed practices that are suitable for them to adopt.
Citation: Pannell,
D.J. (2000). Salt levy? The complex case for public funding of
salinity. SEA Working Paper 2000/01, Agricultural and Resource
Economics, University of Western Australia.
For the full article, see this web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap0001.htm (44K)
For a brief version of the article, prepared with Ted Lefroy for submission to the state-wide morning newspaper, The West Australian, see this web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap0001b.htm (9K)
For the version of the article that was actually published by The West Australian, see this web page (the comparison with what we sent them is interesting): http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap0001n.htm (9K)
2. Salinity Off-Site Effects (reprise)
In the last issue of SEA News, there was an article by David Pannell and others arguing that (a) in most cases, Western Australian farmers do not need to cooperate and coordinate their salinity treatments in order to be effective (in contrast to the message implicit in the push for "Integrated Catchment Management"), (b) the common notion that the key to preventing salinity occurring in rural towns and our remaining natural vegetation (to protect biodiversity) is for farmers to revegetate large areas of land with perennials is wrong in many (and perhaps most) cases, and (c) our approaches to salinity policy that have focussed on getting farmers to take action in order to benefit others have been misguided and inappropriate for most agricultural land in Western Australia. If you missed the article, you can see it in full at http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap9911.htm (114K).
The paper was presented at the 44th Annual Conference of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society at the University of Sydney on January 23 2000. Interest in the paper was enormous (the room was packed) and there was a predictably diverse response, ranging from extremely positive to "I find it hard to believe."/"Surely you don't really mean ..." - not surprising given the strong preconceptions most people have developed in response to the relentless pushing of the "Integrated Catchment Management" concept.
On March 24 2000, the state-wide morning newspaper, The West Australian, published a brief article focussing on the implications of the paper for farmers, including interviews with WA Conservation Council coodinator and the president of the WA Farmers Federation. For the article, see http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap9911n.htm (6K).
One of the strong messages from the paper is that we urgently need an assessment of the extent to which our arguments are relevant in states other than Western Australia. Some responses to the article have been along the lines of, "That's Western Australia. Surely it's different in the east." We have had some advice that it might not be so different as many think. Professor Ian White (Water Research Foundation of Australia, CRES, Australian National University) wrote to say,
I have a student who has just completed a survey of historic air photos of salinised areas in southeastern NSW who has concluded that salinity is due to locaslised effects and can be treated locally. ... Its funny, we've been saying that the WA situation is quite different to what we've been seeing in south eastern Australia, based on the WA "folklore". It may not be after all.Our evidence comes from an examination of historic air photographs of saline areas over the last 50 years.
Ian has asked us to provide a brief summary of the article for inclusion in the newsletter of his Foundation. For those who don't get their newsletter, here is a copy of the article: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap9911b.htm (11K).
To help promote the process of re-consideration and review, we have put together a list of questions that need to be asked of hydrologists in order to identify the significance of off-site effects in a region. The economic arguments in Pannell et al. (1999) are also relevant, but I suspect that the hydrology is the issue that will vary most markedly between regions. The list of questions is at http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap9911q.htm (7K).
3. National radio interview
The "Earthbeat" program on ABC Radio National, which has an estimated audience of 86,000, broadcast a program on dryland salinity in Western Australia on April 1 2000 (repeated on April 3). It included a long interview with David Pannell, ranging over issues in both the areas discussed above.
For a transcript of the interview, see: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/earth/stories/s115911.htm
Here are a few subsequent thoughts and comments about the interview: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap9911i.htm (4K).
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Community
attitudes to land degradation issues and responsibilities
in Western Australia by Sally Marsh,
Michael Burton and Josie Patterson "There is a strong acceptance of community responsibility for land degradation caused by farming activities." |
Many catchments in
Western Australia (WA) are facing a range of environmental
problems caused by farming activities. Samples from three
populations – city, farm and rural town – were surveyed
for a study investigating community attitudes and acceptance of
water management options in a catchment. A small part of the
survey sought responses to statements posed about agriculture,
the environment and responsibility for managing environmental
degradation caused by agriculture. Responses to these statements
show that all groups support a balance between agricultural and
environmental objectives in land use, although farmers and those
in the rural towns are more pro-agriculture than residents of
Perth. Awareness of environmental problems caused by conventional
agricultural activities is only moderate in all samples,
especially awareness of off-site impacts on wetlands, roads and
rural towns. There is a strong acceptance of community
responsibility for land degradation caused by farming activities,
as opposed to a view that individual landowners/farmers having
sole responsibility.
For the full article, see this web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/dpap0002.htm (69K)
Ideas and Lessons on Sustainability from Overseas
To help us think laterally about the problems we face in Australia, we include an example from overseas in each issue of SEA News. This article is from Dan Rigby, University of Manchester.
| Sustainability
Indicators for Natural Resource Management & Policy by Dan Rigby "The majority of indicator frameworks have been developed only at a conceptual level." |
Since the 1992 UN
Conference on Environment and Development in Rio, it has become
widely accepted that ‘indicators of sustainability’
will play a key role in ensuring that development policy is
environmentally sustainable. Among the many initiatives to
identify appropriate sustainability indicators, a number have
focussed on the sustainability of agricultural land use. The main
goal of the research project is to develop and test a methodology
for using indicators to inform policy on natural resource
management in southern and eastern Africa.
For the full article, see this web page: http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/seaos6.htm (3K)
Regular Bits and Pieces
News and Coming Events
"Application of Sustainability Indicators to the Management of Soil and Catchment Health in the Northern Grains Region." Tamworth, NSW, July 2000, Contact Jan.Edwards@agric.nsw.gov.au
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
Direct collaborators - Economists: Martin Chopping (Department of Environmental Protection), Gavin White (Campbell White and Associates), Simone Blennerhassett (Agriculture Western Australia), Amir Abadi, Anne Bennett (University of Western Australia), Vanessa Stewart (Agriculture Western Australia). Bio-physical scientists: Don McFarlane (Water and Rivers Commission), Ruhi Ferdowsian, Bill Porter, Chris Gazey, David Bowran, Dan Carter and Rob Hetherington (Agriculture Western Australia), Steve Powles + WAHRI team (University of Western Australia), Norm Campbell, Tom Hatton + team (CSIRO).
Publications
available
As
well as the articles summarised in this Newsletter, the SEA
Project has a range of publications which we invite you to read.
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
We also have a page with 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
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 |
