Making Markets in Australian Agriculture
Making Markets in Australian Agriculture

Author: Patrick O'Keeffe

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-01-21

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 9811335192

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This book provides a genealogical study of Australian agricultural restructuring, focusing on the case study of wheat export market deregulation. This policy shift was implemented in 2008, ending 60 years of statutory wheat marketing. At the time, policy makers claimed that market liberalisation would empower individual growers, providing them with choice and freedom through uninhibited participation in markets. However, regional wheat markets have become concentrated, and are increasingly controlled by a small number of transnational agribusiness firms, which have been increasingly active in setting the policy agenda in Australian agriculture. The book delves into the discursive construction of policy truths such as efficiency, competition, and the consumer, to understand how this shift was made possible, whose interests have been served, and what the implications of this shift have been. This book focuses on the machinations which contributed to this shift by examining the construction of knowledge, values and identities, which have helped to make the transition from the public to the private appear as a logical, common sense solution to the challenges facing Australian agriculture. The author shows how governmental technologies such as audit, cost-benefit analysis, performance objectives and the consumer were used to make this reality operable. In doing so, he argues that this shift should be viewed as part of the broader restructuring of Australian society, which has facilitated the transference of economic and policy making power from the public to the private.

Australia's Role in Feeding the World
Australia's Role in Feeding the World

Author: Sarah Blagrove

Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING

Published: 2016-08

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1486305903

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Earth's human population currently exceeds 7 billion, and by the year 2050 our planet will have at least two billion more mouths to feed. When faced with providing food for so many people, the idea is often advanced that Australia will become the 'food bowl' of Asia. Australia currently grows enough food to feed about three times its population and agricultural exports are important to our economy; however, Australia's role in feeding the world needs careful consideration. This highly topical book draws together the latest intelligence on the sustainable production and distribution of food and other products from Australian farms. It examines questions that policy-makers, farmers, politicians, agricultural scientists and the general public are asking about the potential productivity of our arable land, the environmental and economic impacts of seeking to increase productivity, and the value of becoming cleaner and greener in our agricultural output. With chapters on the emergence of new markets, consumer trends in China, the biophysical constraints on agricultural expansion, and the various products of Australian agriculture and aquaculture, Australia's Role in Feeding the World provides valuable insight into the future of agriculture in this nation.

Decision-making in Australian Wheat Marketing and Price Risk Management
Decision-making in Australian Wheat Marketing and Price Risk Management

Author: John Williams

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13:

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Previous research that attempted to evaluate Australian farmers' decision-making in a high risk environment has often been inconclusive and contradictory. The risks associated with wheat production, marketing, and hedging/pricing are high in Australia due to irregular rainfall, distance from major markets, and difficulties with suitable hedging benchmarks. Much of the overseas research has limited value to Australia because of higher farming risks, deregulated markets, no price/ income protection policies, and no public underwriting of risks. There have been few in-depth studies that have examined relevant marketing methods and hedging strategies from a behavioural decision-making perspective in a deregulated market. In this research, the Fisher Exact Test (a variation of the Chi-square test) analysed five marketing strategies and six hedging/pricing methods used by wheat growers, across eighteen key management factors and seventeen risk attitude/adoption characteristics in NSW for the 2005 production year, with the results compared with South Australia and Victoria. The findings were then used to examine eight research questions relating to decision-making. Different management approaches by Australian wheat growers were found to affect marketing decision-making more than hedging decision-making which was more influenced by risk perception. Cash flow might be a greater contributing factor leading to emotional anxiety than either the marketing method or hedging strategy. Growers were more likely to perceive that knowledge of variable costs of production led to price risk management, and were also more likely to perceive that they target more realistic price levels when variable costs are known. Alternatively, price risk management was an incentive to lower variable costs of production. A wheat grower's farm size, debt, and farming experience influenced the choice of marketing method or hedging strategy, whilst age did not, while the impact of training was inconclusive. Regret and avoidance in decision-making was high for wheat growers. Rogers' adoption criteria have some influence on decision-making. There was much evidence to support the application of the Kahneman and Tversky's 'certainty effect' proposition to Australian wheat growers.

Marketing Agricultural Products and Services
Marketing Agricultural Products and Services

Author: Brian Walsh

Publisher: NSW Agriculture

Published: 2015-07-17

Total Pages: 100

ISBN-13: 1742561721

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Times are changing. Until fairly recently many farmers were simply producers. Their energies were focused on growing crops and producing livestock. Selling was often just a matter of sending produce to the local saleyards or silo or contacting their stock and station agent. Producers were price takers rather than price managers. Now many farmers have become marketers rather than just producers, and in the near future many more will make the fundamental shift from an on-farm focus as price-takers to a wider approach that includes price risk management and marketing. Official marketing authorities are playing less of a role in marketing Australian agricultural produce. As part of this deregulation, farmers have many more choices, marketing tools and options that they can use to their advantage provided they know how to use them. At the same time consumer expectations have become more complex. Farmers find themselves required to respond to concerns about animal welfare practices, health and food safety aspects of their products, and the environmental and ethical impact of their production methods. The marketing landscape has therefore become more complex and producers need good marketing skills to navigate their way through the pros and cons of the many alternatives they face. This is the challenge for producers—to apply a balance of production, finance, people and marketing skills to run their farm businesses successfully. This book gives farmers the tools to become a marketer rather than just a producer. It details market specifications, product promotion, quality control and how to respond to consumer demands for animal welfare practices, health, food safety, environmental and ethical issues.

Rural and Regional Futures
Rural and Regional Futures

Author: Anthony Hogan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-09-19

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 1317687124

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Agriculture, mining and related rural industries have been central to the development of Australia’s economy. This book details the role that the Australian Government has played in the making of rural and regional Australia, particularly since World War II. The book reviews these policies and evaluates them with regards the commitments undertaken by the Government to contribute towards vibrant, rural communities. Policy areas addressed include agriculture, water, education, welfare and population, natural resource management, resource extraction, Indigenous and affairs, localism, rural research and regional innovation, Youth Affairs and the devolution of regional governance. Overall two distinct policy strategies can be observed: one wherein the government saw its role as part of the entrepreneurial state and a sector wherein government has increasingly taken itself out of industry development, leaving this role to the market. Having considered these strategies and their impacts, the book concludes that policy over the past 40 years has not in fact contributed to a more vibrant, prosperous rural and regional Australia. Rural and Regional Futures concludes with several chapters looking to the future. One chapter explores what the role of the state can be within a social market economy while the final chapter gives consideration to the initial steps rural communities will need to take to begin the process of revitalisation. While these materials present as a case study of developments in Australia, the policy shift from the Government as entrepreneur to a focus on markets is an international one and as such, the insights offered by this book will have wide appeal.