The economic cost of weeds in dryland cotton production systems of Australia

Ziaul Hoque, Robert J. Farquharson, Ian Taylor, Steve Walker, Vikki Osten and Randall E. Jones

No 57893, 2003 Conference (47th), February 12-14, 2003, Fremantle, Australia from Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society

Abstract: Economic losses and costs associated with weeds in dryland cotton production are important, both for growers and for industry bodies when making decisions about research priorities and research and development funding. A survey was conducted to provide information on weed types, control strategies and estimated costs to growers. We used information from the survey to estimate conventional financial losses due to weeds, and as a basis for evaluating aggregate economic (society) impacts. An economic surplus model was used to estimate the aggregate societal impact of weeds for three production regions in north-eastern Australia. The annual economic costs associated with weeds were estimated to be $41 million, and the on-farm financial costs were $25 million. While these are past (sunk) costs, and based on a total removal of weeds, the approach outlined here can be used to begin evaluating likely future returns from technologies or management improvements for different agricultural problems.

Keywords: Crop Production/Industries; Environmental Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16
Date: 2003-02
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/57893/files/2003_hoque.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aare03:57893

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.57893

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2003 Conference (47th), February 12-14, 2003, Fremantle, Australia from Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().