School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Theses

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    Farm size, structural change, and adjustment policy : a study of the dried vine fruit industry in Sunraysia and Robinvale
    Cramb, R. A (1951-) ( 1977)
    Dried vine fruit farms in Sunraysia and Robinvale were nearly all established under closer settlement schemes, with farm size averaging about 8 hectares. The present study indicates that economics of size exist up to a harvested area of about 25 hectares. This would suggest that structural change is occurring in the industry, with farms being amalgamated to take advantage of these economies of size. However, structural change in recent years has been negligible. Some of the obstacles to adjustment are examined in the thesis. They have important implications for government policy; in particular, there is a need for a Land Authority to facilitate adjustment in dried vine fruit growing regions. The thesis also considers some methodological problems in estimating economies of size, and in deriving policy proposals from such estimates. It concludes that the results of most studies of farm size, including this one, must he regarded as provisional, pending the outcome of properly designed empirical tests. It also concludes that the Paretian concept of efficiency is inadequate as a framework for adjustment policy. I would like to thank my supervisors,Mr. G.W. Edwards, Mr. N.H. Sturgess, and Dr. A.S. Watson, for their advice and encouragement during this study. I am also grateful to Mr. John Connell who colaborated on a preliminary statistical analysis (see Section 4.1.6). Acknowledgement is made to the Bureau of Agricultural Economics for the data used in the empirical sections of the thesis. I am grateful to Mrs. Sue Valiance for her excellent typing of the manuscript, and to Mr. Bill Dahl for preparing the diagrams. I was assisted financially by an A.M. White Scholarship and an R.W.S. Nicholas Scholarship. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Jacky, for her financial support, for help in preparing the bibliography, and for her patient encouragement.
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    Agricultural extension among Australian fruitgrowers of Italian descent
    Heslop, A. J (1932-) ( 1977)
    A personal interview study was conducted among 80 first and second generation Italo-Australian fruit-growers. These gravers were dried vine fruits producers in the part of the Sunraysia district in Victoria where irrigation water is supplied by the First Mildura Irrigation Trust. Most respondents came from traditional villages closely associated with agriculture. Many also could have been defined as peasants. They were engaged in subsistence agriculture, but most lived in association with a cash economy. The model of Amoral Familism proposed by Banfield was not found to apply to this population or to any group within the population. However there were slight differences in attitude toward interpersonal and community involvement and practices, depending on whether the respondent had received any formal education in Australia. Associated with this were slight but positive differences in the ability to use print media for communication in agriculture, and similar but negative differences in the willingness to use interpersonal communication channels. While Australian education and occupational background of the family in Italy provide important leads to more effective communication and extension methods, deep seated covert socio-cultural differences were fundamental obstacles to effective communication and extension. These differences were described in the concepts of Familism and Mutual Distrust in Interpersonal Relationships. Migration was a cultural norm and did not represent a break with culture. Achievement Motivation and high aspirations were found to be consistent with the background cultures of the Italo- Australian growers in this study. Mutual Distrust in Interpersonal Relations was a persistent characteristic which showed more strongly in the second than in the first generation. This characteristic was a major obstacle to the flow of technology within the Italian community at a person to person level. Hence it may be a significant factor in decision making to adopt or reject a practice. There is also sane evidence to suggest that person to person communication may be more important in the initial or awareness stage among migrant farmers and growers in this industry. Language difficulty and apathetic tolerance by Anglo-Australians were additional barriers to person to person communication between Italo- and Anglo-Australians. Language also was a major obstacle in the use of English language radio and mass print media. Television programs were very popular and the ability to recall information from this medium was very high. It is thought that television has significant influence on the adoption process with this segment of the rural population. There is a strong need to make farmers, neighbours, business people, extension workers, educators, industry and civic leaders aware that cultural differences persist within the community in much the same way as do political, and religious differences. These differences are real even though not seen on the street. Creation of this awareness is seen as an important task for extension education. There is also a strong need to improve the awareness by Italo- Australians of innovations and of general information. A number of measures to improve awareness, involvement and decision making were recommended, including simile tape/slide programs available in and from district extension offices.