All in Agriculture

Adaptive Agriculture: A Stocktake of Land & Water Australia’s Investments

superuser — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:43:53 +0000

Land & Water Australia has invested substantially over the years in both biophysical research and social and institutional research that have supported adaptive and sustainable agriculture. This knowledge base has helped Australian farmers to adapt in order to manage climate change, climate variability, biodiversity, water, land-use constraints and the wider expectations placed on farm families and rural communities.

IDs and People

Program:

Social and Institutional Research Program

Host Organisation:

Land and Water Australia

Researchers:

Dr Richard Price

Mr Daniel Goode

Subjects

Subjects:

Primary Industries

Keywords:

adaptive

Agriculture

stocktake

Investments

Current Activities

Status:

Complete

Hydrological effects of floodgate management on coastal floodplain agriculture

superuser — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:54:47 +0000

This project has examined the processes causing poor drainage water quality from acid sulfate soil backswamps, quantified the water quality improvements resulting from floodgate opening strategies, quantified the effectiveness of acid groundwater retention strategies, and examined the salinity risks to sugar cane from opening floodgates.

Project Objectives:

1. To identify and quantify the effects of changes to floodgate and land management practices on groundwater and surface water drainage processes (quantity and quality), soil water chemistry, fish habitat quality, and the agricultural productivity of land adjacent to tidal drains/streams and in low-lying acid backswamps.

IDs and People

LWA Project Code:

DAN13

Host Organisation:

Land and Water Australia

Researchers:

Scott Johnston

Dr Peter Slavich

Subjects

Subjects:

Rivers and Wetlands

Keywords:

hydrological

floodgate

Management

coastal

Floodplain

Agriculture

Current Activities

Status:

Complete

Mapping the spatial footprint of Australian agricultural industries

superuser — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:43:07 +0000

This report describes spatial datasets derived from the Agricultural Census that identify the extent of land used by Australian agricultural industries and maps the spatial footprint of six industries of interest to the Signposts project. These maps show where production of cotton, milk cattle , beef cattle, wine grapes, horticulture and grains occur and have changed over time. There are two spatial boundaries structures that have been used in this report, one is based on statistical local areas and the other is based on Mesh Blocks. While Mesh Blocks, generated in 2006 deliver more spatially accurate data sets, statistical local areas can be used to provide a historical perspective.

IDs and People

Program:

Social and Institutional Research Program

Program Theme:

Sustainable Farming

LWA Project Code:

NHT Project 61826A

Subjects

Subjects:

Mapping and Modelling

Landscape Management

Primary Industries

Keywords:

Agriculture

Current Activities

Status:

Complete

The Economic Benefits of Irrigation to National and Regional Economies

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:07:22 +0000

IDs and People

Program:

National Program for Sustainable Irrigation

Legacy (KMS) Project ID:

CIE12

Host Organisation:

The Centre for International Economics

Researchers:

George Reeves

Subjects

Subjects:

Environmental Flows

Irrigation

Keywords:

Agriculture

Catchments

Project Information

Summary:

This study uses a modified version of the Centre for International Economics’ (CIE) economywide general equilibrium model of the Australian economy. This modelling framework allows the net economic value of the irrigation sector to be quantified both in terms of its direct contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) and employment, and the indirect contributions, which capture the economic linkages between the irrigation sector and other sectors of the economy.

Outcomes:

Irrigation makes a substantial contribution to incomes and standards of living of Australians. Irrigation contributes:

directly and indirectly, $12.4 billion or 2.3 per cent to Australia’s GDP;
$2.8 billion indirectly to total household expenditure on goods and services — representing over $530 for each Australian household per year; and
$7.4 billion to total exports, as well as saving $4 billion in imports.

Using the ‘accounting’ approach, irrigated agriculture contributed over $5 billion to Australian GDP for 1996-97, representing 33 per cent of all agriculture and 0.9 per cent of GDP. This represents irrigators share of the agricultural and GDP ‘pies’ respectively.

The ‘economic’ approach estimates the contribution of irrigation to the economy over and above what would have been the case in the absence of an irrigation sector having developed. The accounting approach does not recognise that without irrigation that land would have been used in the same enterprise or a dryland alternative enterprise.

Using the ‘economic approach’ irrigated agriculture directly contributed $3.4 billion or 23 per cent in 1996-97 to the value added for all agriculture. This equates to a 0.65 per cent contribution to Australia’s GDP.

The flow-on effects to the rest of the economy are significant. Value added in the food and fibre processing sector is estimated to be $2.5 billion. This represents 0.47 per cent of GDP.

The flow-on effects beyond the early stage processing sector, including household incomes are most significant. These flow-on effects are estimated at $6.4 billion or 1.2 per cent of GDP.

In total the direct and indirect economic contribution of irrigation to the economy is estimated at $12.4 billion or 2.3 per cent of Australia’s GDP.

In addition, irrigation directly and indirectly contributes around 171 000 employee jobs to the Australian economy, representing 2.6 per cent of total employment in Australia. An additional 17300 persons are estimated to be employers.

Current Activities

Status:

Complete

Background

Aims:

The two key objectives of this study were:

to estimate the real contribution of the irrigation sector to the Australian economy
to estimate the economic impacts of recent and future water reforms at the national level

This is the first part of a wider project, which also assesses the regional impacts of water reforms using the Goulburn Broken region as a case study. The study is being funded by Land and Water’s Sustainable Irrigation Program and is being guided by a steering committee consisting of prominent people from the irrigation sector and government.