School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Theses
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ItemPotential impact of a farm forestry industry on the Goulburn regional economy( 1996)Transactions for a hypothetical farm forestry industry in the Goulburn region were constructed from the output of the FARMTREE model. Eleven different regimes were simulated, including hardwood and softwood, woodlots, timberbelts and wide-spaced agroforestry. This output included estimates of annual cash flows of costs and revenues per hectare. These were transformed to regional aggregated cash flows projected forward over one hundred years. A regional input-output table without farm forestry was constructed using the national input-output table and GRIT and adjusted for future growth. For certain years or 'snapshots' the farm forestry industry transactions were inserted into the future projected input-output table for the Goulburn regional economy. The new balanced input-output table summarizes the inter-sectoral flows and describes the regional structure with the new farm forestry industry inserted. Three snapshots were taken representing different stages of the development of the farm forestry industry: i 2004, the establishment phase: when the cost of plantation formation is greater than the predicted returns from wood sales. ii 2019, the transition phase: when the returns from wood sales have begun to swell whilst new sites are still being planted. iii the steady state phase: when harvesting is equal to replanting, no new sites are being planted, a full range of plantations exist at different stages of formulation and returns from wood sales have trebled since the previous transition year. Two methods were used to analyse the input-output tables constructed and the associated impacts. The first method was the analysis of the difference between the input-output table with farm forestry inserted compared to the input-output table without farm forestry inserted. This method allowed the estimation of the effects of farm forestry industry and the value-added processing of farm forestry products on the other sectors in the regional economy and hence the economy as a whole. The second was with conventional multiplier analysis used to estimate the changes in a given year resulting from an increase in demand for the farm forestry industry, wood manufacturing and other sectors. In the year 2034, the introduction and integration of a farm forestry industry in the Goulburn regional economy potentially generates, using multiplier analysis: $53 million worth of output; $13 million worth of income; and provides for up to 234 jobs. The farm forestry industry, using the difference method of analysis, produced a change in the economy of: $1,268 million in total output, a change of 6 per cent; $302 million in total income, a change of 5 per cent; and 5,750 jobs, a change of 4 per cent. The industry that experiences the single largest increase was the wood manufacturing industry through its value adding of the product purchased from the farm forestry industry.
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ItemEconomic incentives for private softwood plantations in Victoria( 1987)More than 90 per cent of the privately-owned softwood plantations in Victoria are owned by a small number of companies involved in the further processing of softwood timber. This study examines the economic factors influencing the establishment of softwood plantations by other private landholders (i.e. those that do not own softwood processing facilities) and evaluates the economic incentives currently offered to encourage these landholders to establish their own plantations. A number of economic factors contribute to the current low level of planting by private landholders that are not directly involved in the further processing of softwood. These include the structure of the market for softwood in Victoria, the price private growers can expect to receive for their wood, and the long term nature of the investment. The current taxation arrangements for private forestry offer a number of incentives for the establishment of softwood plantations. However they also contain a number of anomalies and disincentives to private forest investment. Various proposals to reform the income tax legislation have been put forward by private grower organizations and by the Commonwealth Government and this study critically evaluates these proposals. The Farm Forestry Agreement Scheme is an incentive scheme that has been offered by the Victorian Government since 1967 to encourage the establishment of private plantations. It offers low-interest loans with repayments deferred for the first 12 years. After more than 15 years operation the total plantings under the Scheme are approximately 8,300 hectares or less than four per cent of the total Victorian softwood resource. Inflation has seriously eroded the incentive value of the Scheme and it is also a very costly and cumbersome scheme to administer. Many Agreement holders are experiencing difficulties in selling wood from their plantations to meet loan repayments and interest in the Scheme has steadily declined in recent years. A number of softwood processing companies operating in Victoria also offer assistance schemes to encourage private landholders to establish their own plantations. The schemes offered by Softwood Holdings Ltd. and APM Forests Ltd. provide private growers with an assured outlet for their timber and have assisted a number of private growers in marketing wood from their plantations. In addition Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd. have recently introduced a scheme known as the Joint Venture Agreement Scheme which offers assistance in the establishment, management and marketing of wood from plantations established jointly by the company and private landholders. The formation of co-operatives of private forest growers offers a number of potential benefits to the owners of private plantations. Of these increased bargaining strength in the marketing of wood and a mechanism for better communication between private growers and softwood processing companies appear to be the most important. The existing incentives and assistance schemes offered by the Government have not been particularly successful in encouraging the establishment of softwood plantations by private landholders. New economic incentives are therefore required if these landholders are to supply an increased proportion of Victoria's future softwood requirements.