Costing yield loss from acidity, sodicity and dryland salinity to Australian agriculture

Abstract

Salinity, sodicity and acidity are three major soil constraints that limit crop and pasture yields in Australia. In this paper estimates are made of the potential benefits arising from their treatment by measuring and mapping their impact on agricultural profit. This is achieved by estimating the increase in profit for Australia's main commodities that would occur if the three soil constraints were costlessly ameliorated. These estimates reveal the upper achievable limit on investment returns. They are also indicative of each soil constraint's economic significance to Australian agriculture. It was found that costless removal of salinity would increase annual profits by A$187 million, sodicity by A$1034Á6 million and acidity by A$1584Á5 million. This equates to 2Á9 per cent, 15Á8 per cent and 24Á2 per cent of total net economic return. It was also found that worsening salinity extent and severity over 2000-2020 has a present value of A$496-A$712 million. Although soil salinity is currently the focus of much public attention, this analysis suggests that from a production viewpoint the correction of sodic and acidic soils may create greater private economic benefit. Opportunities vary considerably among industries. In particular, there is considerable opportunity for the horticultural and viticultural sector to address acidity issues. Whether gross benefits translate into net benefits is a complex question requiring access to context and location-specific information.

Measuring the benefits of environmental stewardship in rural landscapes

“…The dilemma was highlighted by soil conservation which, in addition to offsite benefits, may lead to increased productivity and profits for the farm business (Uri, 1998;Hopkins et al, 2001). The issue of social versus private benefit of managing acidic, sodic and saline soils across Australia is raised by Hajkowicz and Young (2005). For example, paying a farmer to apply lime to an acidic soil may deliver social benefit (water quality, long term productivity) but will also boost crop productivity.…”

Potential of woody biomass production for motivating widespread natural resource management under climate change

“…The methods used to calculate expected profit are described, applied and validated for the baseline in Bryan et al (in press) and are summarised below. Expected profit centres on the use of a profit function (Hajkowicz and Young, 2005;Bryan et al, 2009). The profit function calculates profit at full equity (PFE i,s ) as a measure of the net annual returns to land from agricultural production.…”

An overview of the recent approaches to terroir functional modelling, footprinting and zoning

“…The global water crisis, particularly water scarcity (Hanjra and Qureshi, 2010), that threatens those viticultural areas under semi-arid or arid climates, particularly in the Mediterranean area (Iglesias et al, 2007;Plan Bleu, 2013), questions the relevancy of irrigating, in addition to the degradative effects that this practise may have on soil properties over a long-term period and its high remediation costs (Hajkowitcz and Young, 2005). To address the issue of terroir sustainability in the years to come, one of the greatest challenges is the design of efficient soil restoration practices along with crop and/or intercrop management plans, taking into account the possible effects of climate change.…”