An economic perspective on future research directions for the Australian sheep-grazed rangelands.

Abstract

This paper reviews the current structure and major economic constraints to sheep production in the Australian rangelands and identifies some important areas of research tbat could produce significant payoffs for the industry and the nation. The major areas of potential research payoff identified are in preventing further land degradation, developing economic options for restoring degraded land, improving livestock and labour productivity, developing information technology for pier decision-making and devising better incentive systems for land management. Limited effort has been made to quantify the gains from research in Australia, so the information base on which to assess the net payoff from rangelands research projects is weak. It is not possible to determine which of the options identified above offers the highest expected payoff to the scarce research dollar given existing information Because such assessments are difficult to make, further collaborative efforts involving rangeland scientists and economists are needed to apply benefit-cost analysis techmques to setting research priorities. Considerable scope exists for collaborative inter- discipbmy research teams to address the problems identified.