Biosecurity is the management of risks to the economy, the environment and the community of pests and diseases entering, emerging, establishing or spreading. In Australia, biosecurity services are delivered by government and industry in partnership with farmers and the wider community as a...

ASEAN is host to seven of the world’s 25 biodiversity hotspots. Failure of governments and their peoples to protect and conserve the region’s rich biodiversity is one of the greatest threats to the over 500 million people of ASEAN. As in other areas of the developing world, biodiversity...

Economic evaluations of the benefits of integrated weed management often only consider the benefits of management in the crop phase, and ignore the impact of rotational options. In particular, non-crop phases such as annual and perennial pasture phases can have a substantial impact upon weed...

Environmental, social, and economic attributes are important for the sustainability of a farming system. Resilience is also important, yet has seldom been directly considered in evaluations of economic sustainability. In economic terms, resilience has to do with the capacity of the farm business...

Mallee farmers minimize downside risk in dry seasons by applying low rates of nitrogen (N) fertiliser to their cereal crops. The opportunity to respond to and capitalize on the better years is further limited as most inputs are applied upfront at sowing. We used an economic-risk decision model...

This paper examines the Federal quarantine established by USDA in 1996 to prevent the spread of Karnal bunt, a minor disease of wheat. During the early stages of its regulatory strategy, USDA made extensive use of probabilistic risk assessments to determine the efficacy of various quarantine...

The social and environmental benefits of establishing E. globulus plantations in south west Australia on previously cleared farmland are reviewed. Due to their sensitivity to drought, we study how this risk may affect the return on plantation investments. Productivity reductions of up to 40% in...

This paper presents the results obtained from two experimental auctions regarding consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for food safety improvements. The research found a positive WTP for food safety. However WTP amounts are different when participants bid with objective risk information as compared...