The lowland rice industry in Laos experiences dry conditions regularly. Rice producers also face rising labour costs as the Lao economy grows. Much of the crop is consumed by the farm households who grew it. Between 1997 and 2012 ACIAR co-funded a set of three projects with the main outcomes being the development of rice varieties more tolerant of dry conditions and direct seeding technologies to replace traditional hand transplanting. Human capacity and scientific knowledge were other significant outcomes from the projects. Direct seeding allowed the release of family labour for other on- and off- farm and household activities. Assessing ACIAR’s contribution to the economic and social impacts from this set of projects was difficult because of the length of time since the projects began, because of the lack of data about the adoption of the technologies and because the University team funded by ACIAR were not the only research team working on these technologies. We focussed on estimating the economic impact of the two technologies applying welfare analysis in a farm level market model of the Lao rice industry and on describing gains in scientific capacity and knowledge. Potential social impacts from the releasing labour from transplanting were also described. Given the uncertainties created by inadequate data, care was taken to develop plausible causal pathways between project research activities and economic and social outcomes. The present value in 2017 of the investment in the three projects by ACIAR and partners was estimated to be $A14.1m (all monetary values in 2017 $AUD and applying ACIAR’s 5% discount rate). The present values in 2017 of the streams of measurable benefits from the adoption of more drought tolerant varieties and direct seeding technology were $A18.5m and $A44.1m respectively, for a total of $A62.6m. The net present value of these streams of benefits and costs in 2017 was $A48.5m. The benefit cost ratio was 4.44:1 and the internal rate of return was 16.0%. The modified internal rate of return, MIRR was 11.5% assuming that the net benefit stream can be reinvested through the life of the investment at a rate of 5%. By these three measures the set of three projects, whose impact has been assessed here, are likely to have been a good investment from ACIAR’s perspective. This conclusion is quite robust to the uncertainty surrounding our assumption about the rates of adoption of the technologies and the share of benefits from the two technologies attributable to the ACIAR projects. If both these parameters are halved (approximately) for both technologies, an unlikely scenario in our view, the investment in the projects still earns the required rate of return.

Pasture-fed beef is being increasingly demanded by global beef consumers. However, pasture-fed beef value chains are struggling to maintain continuity of supply and consistent quality of product year round. Pasture-based production systems are influenced extensively by environmental conditions, pasture species, grazing management and livestock management systems. This variability, compounded by variability in market outcomes, could have a significant impact on the long term viability and profitability of producers in the value chain. This study aimed to assess the level of non-compliance in one southern pasture-fed value chain, with the intention of using the results to focus further work on areas of production and supply most critical to sustaining the market. Nineteen months of carcass grading data over 2012 and 2013 from almost 63,000 cattle were evaluated to determine the levels of non-compliance with the relevant company specifications. Hot standard carcass weight, P8 fat depth and sex were the carcass attributes that were compared and analysed. The 2012 data set comprised 3,905 heifers and 9,922 steers. Some 66% of the heifers and 62% of the steers did not meet the preferred company specifications for carcass weight and fat depth. For heifers, the cost of non-compliance was estimated to be $63 per carcass and for steers it was $47 per carcass. The 2013 data set comprised 19,099 heifers and 30,014 steers. A total of 78% of the heifers did not meet the highest value specification on the grid, with more than 50% of heifer carcasses being too light. Just on 60% of steer carcasses did not meet the 2013 weight and fat specifications with 39% of all the steers being overweight. The foregone value in non-compliance for heifers was estimated to be $84 per carcass and, for steers, $87 per carcass. Across the whole dataset, the weighted average cost of non-compliance was $78 per carcass.

Poverty is serious and widespread in the rural coastal areas of Indonesia. Government data suggests that more than 7.8 million people in more than 10 ,500 villages live below the poverty line. A rapid poverty reduction program has been conducted since 2011 through the provision of infrastructure that supports more productive industries. However, even if the infrastructure is available, can small-scale food producers in coastal areas achieve self-propelled development if they are still poor? The value chain approach to development is suggested as a complement to the existing infrastructure development program by opening up market channels for high value products through vertical linkages. Pindang or boiled fish is used as a case study, since the industry is quite large and it involves many low-income people. Its current value chain is analysed to define the bottlenecks. This leads to a conclusion that to achieve greater economic development, small-scale pindang producers could consider (a) improving their product quality and diversifying their product range, (b) increasing economies of scale by upgrading horizontal linkages, and (c) introducing new leading firms within vertical linkages.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the policy options with the best prospects to improve the performance and competitiveness of housewives’ groups in the cottage food industry in Thailand. The analytical framework is based on an analysis of private and value chain-level net benefits from alternative policy actions and research and training initiatives. Seven candidates for policy implementation with the best prospects for success are examined: industrial policy; improving food quality; branding and labelling; encouraging strategic alliances; increasing the managerial role of members in housewives’ groups; educating members of housewives’ groups and group leaders; and improving the organisational structure of housewives’ groups. A suitable institutional setting is essential for policy success. We describe a chain governor and cooperative research centre for cottage foods that would fit neatly into the existing policy milieu in Thailand. This paper highlights the potential to improve the performance of housewives’ groups and stimulate its growth as a key income-generating activity for rural households in developing countries.

Typically, the techniques used by the best farm managers to improve productivity are correlated with actions that address land and water degradation issues, thus establishing a nexus between land repair, improved production and profit. To address broader environmental degradation issues, there are a number of programs through which landholders can voluntarily conserve areas of ecological value on their properties. They range from non-binding, temporary agreements to binding agreements that are attached perpetually to the title of the land. There are other ecosystem values for which incentives are being developed, for example, salinity, carbon sequestration and amenity purposes and often there is a range of these that may be applicable to a particular land area. This paper overviews some of the existing revolving fund schemes that have been implemented or are currently being tested in Australia, considers the payment of landholders for providing ecosystem services and then provides details on a case study of one type of revolving fund, the Land Repair Fund.

Australian Pork Limited collects producer levies and matching contributions from the Federal government (on some of the levy income), and uses these funds to invest in R&D, domestic and export marketing campaigns and strategic policy development. In 2003/04, more than $18 million in funds were available. Levy payers and other stakeholders want to know that these funds are being well spent to generate positive net returns to the industry. This issue is particularly important at present, with the Australian pig meat industry competing in a global market environment, producing significant quantities of pork exports but also facing significant quantities of pork imports for further processing.

Irrigation underpins approximately one-third of the value of Queensland's agricultural production. There have been calls for further development of water infrastructure in northern Queensland to enhance the production of sugar cane, horticulture, aquaculture and other crops. One of the steps in assessing potential new developments is to establish which groups have demands for additional water, and how sensitive they are to price. Surveys are one mechanism that can be used to gauge this information. Surveys to assess water demands have been carried out in the Mackay and Atherton Tablelands regions and the results are reported in this paper.

The size of the cost to the Australian beef industry of a potential loss of major beef export markets following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Australia is important in determining appropriate precautions. The size of this cost is evaluated with a dynamic bioeconomic model of Australian beef production, consumption and export trade. The model developed by ABARE represents forward-looking competitive behaviour of beef producers and traders on domestic and export markets based on perfect foresight. The model enables estimation of the cost due to a FMD outbreak under various scenarios regarding the duration of market closure and affected zones.