This chapter explores the history of the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia, and its significant contributions on the development of the organic industry in Australia.
This chapter highlights key issues affecting returns to management in organic agriculture, often comparing them with returns to management on a conventional farm. Production, input costs, output prices, premiums and subsidies are discussed to arrive at the farm profitability on established organic farms. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in organic farming are also identified.
The classes of benefits and costs, private and external, arising from a partial movement from conventional to chemical-free farming are considered. A report is provided on a comparison of physical and financial characteristics of chemical-free and conventional cereal/livestock farming in south-eastern Australia. A key finding is that private net returns were similar for the two types of farmers. A favourable change in net externalities could be expected from a movement towards chemical-free farming. Policy implications relating to the taxation of chemical use in agriculture, and to research, extension and marketing are discussed.
Concerns facing organic producers can be divided into two main groups, production and marketing. In the early days of the organic industry, the production problems of farmers were emphasized, and research topics were often concentrated on soil, pests and diseases. More recently, as the industry matures and international trade of organic products has grown, the importance of market-related issues has come to the fore. On the one hand, the need for harmonization of standards and acceptance of equivalence for market development, which would facilitate international trade, is recognized. On the other hand, a more serious push towards domestic consumption seems afoot, which would advantage domestic farmers but disadvantage producers in exporting countries.
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