An integrated approach to assessing the farm and market level impacts of new technology adoption in Australian lamb production and marketing systems: The case of large, lean lamb

https://doi.org/10.1016/0308-521X(94)P4410-4Get rights and content

Abstract

New technology adoption is an important source of productivity gains in Australia's extensive livestock production systems because of the opportunities it offers producers to achieve sustainable cost reductions. Widespread technology adoption which leads to permanent production increases can be expected to have industry-wide effects because of the competitive nature of the Australian livestock industries. Assessing the potential economic benefits of new technology adoption therefore requires the use of a model which considers both the farm and market components of these industries. This paper describes the development of such a model and its ex-ante application in assessing the benefits of a new technology programme in Australian lamb production. Based on parameters derived from the model's farm and market level components, the introduction of this technology was found to offer significant annual benefits to both Australian lamb producers and lamb consumers (of between $4 and $30 million) according to several assumed market scenarios for the product.

References (22)

  • J.M. Alston

    Research benefits in a multimarket setting: a review

    Rev. Marketing Agric. Econ.

    (1991)
  • AMLC

    Australia Meat and Livestock Industry Statistics

    (1993)
  • B.W. Bootle

    Sheep Cents — An Integrated Program for the Economic Analysis of Wool and Meat Sheep Enterprises

    (1991)
  • B.W. Bootle

    On-farm economic evaluation of sheep enterprises: Sheep Cents — an integrated program for the economic analysis of wool and meat sheep enterprises

  • B.W. Bootle et al.

    Economic Assessment of the Farm and Industry Impacts of Production Technology in the Australian Prime Lamb Industry: Gross Margin and Risk Analysis of Elite Lamb

  • J.S. Davis et al.

    Assessment of Agricultural Research Priorities: an International Perspective

  • G.W. Edwards et al.

    The gains from research into tradable commodities

    Amer. J. Agric. Econ.

    (1984)
  • G.R. Griffith et al.

    An Ex Ante Assessment of the Economic Impact of PST on the Australian Pig Industry: Preliminary Results

    (1991)
  • C.M. Lemieux et al.

    Ex ante evaluation of the economic impact of agricultural biotechnology: the case of porcine somatotropin

    Amer. J. Agric. Econ.

    (1989)
  • R.K. Lindner et al.

    Supply shifts and the size of research benefits

    Amer. J. Agric. Econ.

    (1978)
  • G. Love et al.

    Some Potential Economic Effects of Technology and Productivity Change in Australia's Beef Cattle and Sheep Industries

  • Cited by (8)

    • How to make Participatory Technology Assessment in agriculture more "participatory": The case of genetically modified plants

      2016, Technological Forecasting and Social Change
      Citation Excerpt :

      TA has been used within agriculture to address the interests of individual farmers, as well as consumers and society. Through a literature review, I identified four major areas in which TA has been applied within agriculture in order to assess (i) the economic consequences of introducing new technologies (e.g. no-till technologies, precision farming technologies, and GMOs) at farm, as well as national/societal level (e.g. Pinstrup-Andersen, 1979; Bowman et al., 1989; Bonnieux et al., 1993; Gotsch et al., 1993; Griffith et al., 1995; Borch and Rasmussen, 2005; Lankoski et al., 2006; Self and Grabowski, 2007; Jensen et al., 2012; Nolan and Santos, 2012); (ii) the effect of using new technologies on agricultural outputs at farm level in developing countries (e.g. Mann et al., 1968; Loehman et al., 1995; Hijmans et al., 2003; Jagtap and Abamu, 2003; Sheikh et al., 2003; Torkamani, 2005; White et al., 2005); (iii) consumers' acceptance of, for example, GMOs and biotechnology (e.g. Bonnieux et al., 1993; Burton et al., 2001; Lusk et al., 2004; Vergragt and Brown, 2008); and (iv) most recently, the impact of innovative agricultural technologies (e.g. precision farming technologies, GMOs, and irrigation technologies) on climate change and environmental sustainability (e.g. Barrett and Abergel, 2000; Cederberg and Mattsson, 2000; Pringle et al., 2003; Furtan, 2007; Pampolino et al., 2007; Vergragt and Brown, 2008; Ahlgren et al., 2009; Gnansounou et al., 2009; Fleischer et al., 2011; Smyth et al., 2011; Mushtaq et al., 2013; Zaher et al., 2013). To carry out these assessments, scholars have applied different TA approaches, such as economic and simulation models, surveys and participatory approaches (ibid).

    • Adoption of GM technology in livestock production chains: an integrating framework

      2007, Trends in Food Science and Technology
      Citation Excerpt :

      Besides obtaining willingness to pay estimates, these studies characterise and cluster consumers based on their preferences with respect to the food investigated. Another group of the models, covering various stages of the chain, such as the work by Griffith et al. (1995), Valeeva et al. (2003) and Van der Gaag, Saatkamp, Backus, van Beek, and Huirne (2004), considers multiple stages of production chains, but does not establish connections between them and the consumer component. For example, the model of Griffith et al. (1995) integrates farm and market components and analyses the impact of new lamb management technology for the production of large, lean lamb.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text