About this course: Sound economic thinking is crucial for farmers because they depend on good economic decision making to survive. Governments depend on economic information to make good policy decisions on behalf of the community. This course will help you to contribute to better decision making by farmers, or by agencies servicing agriculture, and it will help you to understand why farmers respond to policies and economic opportunities in the ways they do. You can use this course to improve your skills and knowledge, and to assess whether this is a subject that you'd like to study further. The course includes high-quality video lectures, interviews with experts, demonstrations of how to build economic models in spreadsheets, practice quizzes, and a range of recommended readings and optional readings. Assessment is by a final exam. The key economic principles that we’ll learn about can help us understand changes that have occurred in agriculture, and support improved decision making about things like agricultural production methods, agricultural input levels, resource conservation, and the balance between agricultural production and its environmental impacts. There are literally thousands of agricultural economists around the world who work on these issues, so there is a wealth of knowledge to draw on for the course. Watch a brief video about our course here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_IeYGpeqV8
Created by: University of Western Australia
Taught by: Professor David Pannell, BSc(Agric), BEc, PhD, Head of School of Agricultural and Resource Economics
University of Western Australia
Taught by: Jacob Hawkins, BA(Biol), MESM, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics
University of Western Australia
| Level | Beginner |
| Commitment | 7 weeks of study, 2-3 hours/week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Agricultural production and prices, and agriculture’s reliance on natural resources
Week 1 provides a history of agricultural production and prices, an examination into the reasons behind changes in production and prices, and discussions of the 2007 global food crisis and agriculture’s usage of resources.
11 videos, 10 readings
- Video: Video - Course introduction
- Video: Video - History of agricultural production and prices
- Reading: Optional Reading - Origins of Agriculture
- Reading: Optional Viewing - The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1
- Video: Video - Agricultural products' supply
- Reading: Optional Reading - Economics Basics: Supply and Demand
- Video: Video - Agricultural products' demand
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussion 266: Supply and Demand: The Wool Crisis
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 178: Betting on Wheat Prices
- Video: Video - The 2007 food price crisis
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 284: The world food price crisis of 2007
- Reading: Optional Viewing - The Corn Controversy: Food or Fuel
- Reading: Optional Reading - The Food Price Crisis of 2007/2008: Evidence and Implications
- Reading: Optional Reading - Causes of the 2007-2008 global food crisis identified
- Video: Video - Food security
- Reading: Optional Reading - The State of Food Insecurity in the World: The multiple dimensions of food security
- Video: Video - Resource usage 1: Land and soils
- Video: Video - Resource usage 2: Water
- Video: Video - Resource usage 3: Nutrients
- Video: Video - Resource usage 4: Pesticides
- Video: Video - Interview - Kadambot Siddique, Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia
Graded: Quiz - Agricultural production and prices, and agriculture’s reliance on natural resources
WEEK 2
Resource and environmental challenges facing agriculture
Week 2 addresses the agricultural issues of water availability, peak phosphorus, herbicide resistance, and climate change.
9 videos, 8 readings
- Video: Video - Water pollution
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussion 261: Agricultural water pollution
- Reading: Optional Reading - Protecting Water Quality from Agricultural Runoff
- Video: Video - Pesticide bans
- Video: Video - Dryland salinity
- Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussion 26: Dryland salinity in Australia
- Video: Video - Resource exhaustibility: phosphorus supply
- Reading: Optional Reading - Phosphorus: Essential to Life – Are we running out?
- Video: Video - Resource exhaustibility: water shortages
- Reading: Optional Reading - Can Australia overcome its Water Scarcity Problems?
- Video: Video - Resource exhaustibility: herbicide resistance
- Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussion 57: Herbicide resistance: Does prevention pay?
- Video: Video - Climate change
- Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussions 230: Future climate change and wheat yields in Western Australia
- Video: Video - Climate policy and adaptation
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 168: Telling farmers how to adapt to climate change
- Video: Video - Interview - Michael Robertson, CSIRO
Graded: Resource and environmental challenges facing agriculture
WEEK 3
The economics of agricultural inputs
Week 3 looks at the relationship between inputs and outputs, the optimal level of an input, the question of pollution from inputs, and flat payoff functions.
9 videos, 4 readings
- Video: Video - Fertiliser
- Reading: Optional reading - world data on fertilizers
- Video: Video - Fertiliser and Crop Yield
- Video: Video - Production functions
- Video: Video - Profit maximisation
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussion 277: Perfection isn’t best
- Reading: Optional Reading - Determining Optimum Nitrogen Application Rates for Corn
- Video: Video - Building a spreadsheet to maximise profit
- Video: Video - Effects of price and yield changes on optimal fertiliser use
- Video: Video - Considering pollution in input decisions
- Video: Video - Flat payoff functions
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 88: Flat-earth economics
- Video: Video - Interview - David Brown, Farmer, Burracoppin, Western Australia
Graded: The economics of agricultural inputs
WEEK 4
The economics of land conservation
Week 4 focuses on evaluating land conservation practices, weighing benefits and costs correctly, non-economic factors, and provides an example in conservation agriculture.
9 videos, 6 readings
- Video: Video - Resource conservation in farming
- Video: Video - Benefits and costs of resource conservation over time
- Video: Video - Accounting for time
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 33: Time is money
- Video: Video - Discounting
- Video: Video - Building a spreadsheet for discounting benefits and costs
- Video: Video - Case study: conservation agriculture
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 268: Conservation Agriculture in Developing Countries
- Reading: Optional Reading - The farm-level economics of conservation agriculture for resource-poor farmers.
- Video: Video - Drivers of farmers’ decision-making
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Adoption of conservation practices by rural landholders
- Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussions 203: Predicting adoption of new farming practices
- Video: Video - Interview - Mike McFarlane, farmer, Doodlakine, Western Australia
- Video: Video - Interview - Greg Shea, WA Department of Agriculture and Food
- Reading: Help with the calculations for Week 4 Quiz
Graded: The economics of land conservation
WEEK 5
The economics of agri-environmental projects
Week 5 discusses the importance of extending economics beyond the farm gate, characteristics of agri-environmental projects, Benefit: Cost Analysis, and provides an example with Gippsland Lakes.
8 videos, 7 readings
- Video: Video - Environmental projects in agriculture
- Reading: Optional Viewing - A cleaner Baltic Sea by improved agricultural productivity
- Reading: Optional Viewing - Positive benefits flow from agri-environment funding support in Scotland
- Video: Video - Extending economics beyond the farm
- Video: Video - Characteristics of environmental projects
- Video: Video - Benefit: Cost Analysis
- Reading: Recommended Viewing - Intro to Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Reading: Optional Reading - Simple Introduction to Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Video: Video - Benefit: Cost Ratio
- Reading: Recommended Reading - When ranking environmental projects, mixing a little theory, logic and common sense leads to better outcomes
- Video: Video - Case study: The Gippsland Lakes
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussion 182: Increasing marginal costs of environmental projects
- Video: Video - A helpful tool: INFFER
- Reading: Optional Reading - INFFER (Investment Framework for Environmental Resources)
- Video: Video - Interview - Marit Kragt, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Western Australia
Graded: The economics of agri-environmental projects
WEEK 6
Government policies in agriculture
Week 6 ties up the course through discussion of government policies that support agriculture, policies that protect the rural environment, policies with problems, and justifications for agricultural policy.
8 videos, 9 readings
- Video: Video - Government policies in agriculture
- Video: Video - Policies to support agricultural production
- Reading: Optional Viewing - Fields of Gold: Lifting the Veil on Europe's Farm Subsidies
- Video: Video - Policies for environmental protection in agriculture
- Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussions 259: Increasing environmental benefits
- Video: Video - Agricultural policy problems: Price support
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussion 266: Supply and Demand: The Wool Crisis
- Reading: Recommended Reading - Severing the Link between Farm Program Payments and Farm Production: Motivation, International Efforts, and Lessons
- Video: Video - Agricultural policy problems: Biofuels
- Reading: Recommended Reading - The backlash against biofuels
- Reading: Optional Reading - The Trouble with Biofuels: Costs and Consequences of Expanding Biofuel Use in the United Kingdom
- Video: Video - Justifications for agricultural policy
- Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussions 22: Public goods and public benefits in NRM
- Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussions 35: Externalities and market failure
- Video: Video - Course wrap-up
- Reading: Further information on studying agricultural economics, natural resource economics or environmental economics at the University of Western Australia
- Video: Video - Interview - Ross Kingwell, Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre
Graded: Government policies in agriculture
WEEK 7
Final Exam
Graded: Final Exam
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University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia (UWA) was established in 1911 and continues to set the standard for other West Australian universities. Staff, students and graduates from the University have been recognised at state, national and international levels, and UWA continues to confirm its standing as one of Australia’s leading research-intensive universities. UWA's leaders and researchers work in partnership with three domestic and international networks, the Group of Eight, Matariki and the Worldwide Universities Network.
Ratings and Reviews
My field is Investments, but I have been interested in pursuing a career in Agriculture - but not really taking the next step or learning about it. Doing this course has made me 100% sure of my decision. It was quite interesting, informative and certainly educational. Thank you very much!
Well presented material and excellent course content. Highly enjoyable. Thank you.
I am very grateful for this course.
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Great course, I learned a lot of new and interesting things. I wish I could go and continue my studies by going to UWA, maybe in the not-so-distant future :)