Agriculture, Economics and Nature

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Agriculture, Economics and Nature

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About this course: Sound economic thinking is crucial for farmers because they depend on good economic decision making to survive. Governments depend on economic information to make good policy decisions on behalf of the community. This course will help you to contribute to better decision making by farmers, or by agencies servicing agriculture, and it will help you to understand why farmers respond to policies and economic opportunities in the ways they do. You can use this course to improve your skills and knowledge, and to assess whether this is a subject that you'd like to study further. The course includes high-quality video lectures, interviews with experts, demonstrations of how …

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Didn't find what you were looking for? See also: Agricultural Science, Economics, International Economics, Horticulture, and Machinery.

When you enroll for courses through Coursera you get to choose for a paid plan or for a free plan

  • Free plan: No certicification and/or audit only. You will have access to all course materials except graded items.
  • Paid plan: Commit to earning a Certificate—it's a trusted, shareable way to showcase your new skills.

About this course: Sound economic thinking is crucial for farmers because they depend on good economic decision making to survive. Governments depend on economic information to make good policy decisions on behalf of the community. This course will help you to contribute to better decision making by farmers, or by agencies servicing agriculture, and it will help you to understand why farmers respond to policies and economic opportunities in the ways they do. You can use this course to improve your skills and knowledge, and to assess whether this is a subject that you'd like to study further. The course includes high-quality video lectures, interviews with experts, demonstrations of how to build economic models in spreadsheets, practice quizzes, and a range of recommended readings and optional readings. Assessment is by a final exam. The key economic principles that we’ll learn about can help us understand changes that have occurred in agriculture, and support improved decision making about things like agricultural production methods, agricultural input levels, resource conservation, and the balance between agricultural production and its environmental impacts. There are literally thousands of agricultural economists around the world who work on these issues, so there is a wealth of knowledge to draw on for the course. Watch a brief video about our course here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_IeYGpeqV8

Created by:  University of Western Australia
  • Taught by:  Professor David Pannell, BSc(Agric), BEc, PhD, Head of School of Agricultural and Resource Economics

    University of Western Australia
  • Taught by:  Jacob Hawkins, BA(Biol), MESM, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics

    University of Western Australia
Level Beginner Commitment 7 weeks of study, 2-3 hours/week Language English How To Pass Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. User Ratings 4.7 stars Average User Rating 4.7See what learners said Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) was established in 1911 and continues to set the standard for other West Australian universities. Staff, students and graduates from the University have been recognised at state, national and international levels, and UWA continues to confirm its standing as one of Australia’s leading research-intensive universities. UWA's leaders and researchers work in partnership with three domestic and international networks, the Group of Eight, Matariki and the Worldwide Universities Network.

Syllabus


WEEK 1


Agricultural production and prices, and agriculture’s reliance on natural resources
Week 1 provides a history of agricultural production and prices, an examination into the reasons behind changes in production and prices, and discussions of the 2007 global food crisis and agriculture’s usage of resources.


11 videos, 10 readings expand


  1. Video: Video - Course introduction
  2. Video: Video - History of agricultural production and prices
  3. Reading: Optional Reading - Origins of Agriculture
  4. Reading: Optional Viewing - The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1
  5. Video: Video - Agricultural products' supply
  6. Reading: Optional Reading - Economics Basics: Supply and Demand
  7. Video: Video - Agricultural products' demand
  8. Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussion 266: Supply and Demand: The Wool Crisis
  9. Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 178: Betting on Wheat Prices
  10. Video: Video - The 2007 food price crisis
  11. Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 284: The world food price crisis of 2007
  12. Reading: Optional Viewing - The Corn Controversy: Food or Fuel
  13. Reading: Optional Reading - The Food Price Crisis of 2007/2008: Evidence and Implications
  14. Reading: Optional Reading - Causes of the 2007-2008 global food crisis identified
  15. Video: Video - Food security
  16. Reading: Optional Reading - The State of Food Insecurity in the World: The multiple dimensions of food security
  17. Video: Video - Resource usage 1: Land and soils
  18. Video: Video - Resource usage 2: Water
  19. Video: Video - Resource usage 3: Nutrients
  20. Video: Video - Resource usage 4: Pesticides
  21. Video: Video - Interview - Kadambot Siddique, Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia

Graded: Quiz - Agricultural production and prices, and agriculture’s reliance on natural resources

WEEK 2


Resource and environmental challenges facing agriculture
Week 2 addresses the agricultural issues of water availability, peak phosphorus, herbicide resistance, and climate change.


9 videos, 8 readings expand


  1. Video: Video - Water pollution
  2. Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussion 261: Agricultural water pollution
  3. Reading: Optional Reading - Protecting Water Quality from Agricultural Runoff
  4. Video: Video - Pesticide bans
  5. Video: Video - Dryland salinity
  6. Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussion 26: Dryland salinity in Australia
  7. Video: Video - Resource exhaustibility: phosphorus supply
  8. Reading: Optional Reading - Phosphorus: Essential to Life – Are we running out?
  9. Video: Video - Resource exhaustibility: water shortages
  10. Reading: Optional Reading - Can Australia overcome its Water Scarcity Problems?
  11. Video: Video - Resource exhaustibility: herbicide resistance
  12. Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussion 57: Herbicide resistance: Does prevention pay?
  13. Video: Video - Climate change
  14. Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussions 230: Future climate change and wheat yields in Western Australia
  15. Video: Video - Climate policy and adaptation
  16. Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 168: Telling farmers how to adapt to climate change
  17. Video: Video - Interview - Michael Robertson, CSIRO

Graded: Resource and environmental challenges facing agriculture

WEEK 3


The economics of agricultural inputs
Week 3 looks at the relationship between inputs and outputs, the optimal level of an input, the question of pollution from inputs, and flat payoff functions.


9 videos, 4 readings expand


  1. Video: Video - Fertiliser
  2. Reading: Optional reading - world data on fertilizers
  3. Video: Video - Fertiliser and Crop Yield
  4. Video: Video - Production functions
  5. Video: Video - Profit maximisation
  6. Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussion 277: Perfection isn’t best
  7. Reading: Optional Reading - Determining Optimum Nitrogen Application Rates for Corn
  8. Video: Video - Building a spreadsheet to maximise profit
  9. Video: Video - Effects of price and yield changes on optimal fertiliser use
  10. Video: Video - Considering pollution in input decisions
  11. Video: Video - Flat payoff functions
  12. Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 88: Flat-earth economics
  13. Video: Video - Interview - David Brown, Farmer, Burracoppin, Western Australia

Graded: The economics of agricultural inputs

WEEK 4


The economics of land conservation
Week 4 focuses on evaluating land conservation practices, weighing benefits and costs correctly, non-economic factors, and provides an example in conservation agriculture.


9 videos, 6 readings expand


  1. Video: Video - Resource conservation in farming
  2. Video: Video - Benefits and costs of resource conservation over time
  3. Video: Video - Accounting for time
  4. Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 33: Time is money
  5. Video: Video - Discounting
  6. Video: Video - Building a spreadsheet for discounting benefits and costs
  7. Video: Video - Case study: conservation agriculture
  8. Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussions 268: Conservation Agriculture in Developing Countries
  9. Reading: Optional Reading - The farm-level economics of conservation agriculture for resource-poor farmers.
  10. Video: Video - Drivers of farmers’ decision-making
  11. Reading: Recommended Reading - Adoption of conservation practices by rural landholders
  12. Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussions 203: Predicting adoption of new farming practices
  13. Video: Video - Interview - Mike McFarlane, farmer, Doodlakine, Western Australia
  14. Video: Video - Interview - Greg Shea, WA Department of Agriculture and Food
  15. Reading: Help with the calculations for Week 4 Quiz

Graded: The economics of land conservation

WEEK 5


The economics of agri-environmental projects
Week 5 discusses the importance of extending economics beyond the farm gate, characteristics of agri-environmental projects, Benefit: Cost Analysis, and provides an example with Gippsland Lakes.


8 videos, 7 readings expand


  1. Video: Video - Environmental projects in agriculture
  2. Reading: Optional Viewing - A cleaner Baltic Sea by improved agricultural productivity
  3. Reading: Optional Viewing - Positive benefits flow from agri-environment funding support in Scotland
  4. Video: Video - Extending economics beyond the farm
  5. Video: Video - Characteristics of environmental projects
  6. Video: Video - Benefit: Cost Analysis
  7. Reading: Recommended Viewing - Intro to Cost-Benefit Analysis
  8. Reading: Optional Reading - Simple Introduction to Cost-Benefit Analysis
  9. Video: Video - Benefit: Cost Ratio
  10. Reading: Recommended Reading - When ranking environmental projects, mixing a little theory, logic and common sense leads to better outcomes
  11. Video: Video - Case study: The Gippsland Lakes
  12. Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussion 182: Increasing marginal costs of environmental projects
  13. Video: Video - A helpful tool: INFFER
  14. Reading: Optional Reading - INFFER (Investment Framework for Environmental Resources)
  15. Video: Video - Interview - Marit Kragt, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Western Australia

Graded: The economics of agri-environmental projects

WEEK 6


Government policies in agriculture
Week 6 ties up the course through discussion of government policies that support agriculture, policies that protect the rural environment, policies with problems, and justifications for agricultural policy.


8 videos, 9 readings expand


  1. Video: Video - Government policies in agriculture
  2. Video: Video - Policies to support agricultural production
  3. Reading: Optional Viewing - Fields of Gold: Lifting the Veil on Europe's Farm Subsidies
  4. Video: Video - Policies for environmental protection in agriculture
  5. Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussions 259: Increasing environmental benefits
  6. Video: Video - Agricultural policy problems: Price support
  7. Reading: Recommended Reading - Pannell Discussion 266: Supply and Demand: The Wool Crisis
  8. Reading: Recommended Reading - Severing the Link between Farm Program Payments and Farm Production: Motivation, International Efforts, and Lessons
  9. Video: Video - Agricultural policy problems: Biofuels
  10. Reading: Recommended Reading - The backlash against biofuels
  11. Reading: Optional Reading - The Trouble with Biofuels: Costs and Consequences of Expanding Biofuel Use in the United Kingdom
  12. Video: Video - Justifications for agricultural policy
  13. Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussions 22: Public goods and public benefits in NRM
  14. Reading: Optional Reading - Pannell Discussions 35: Externalities and market failure
  15. Video: Video - Course wrap-up
  16. Reading: Further information on studying agricultural economics, natural resource economics or environmental economics at the University of Western Australia
  17. Video: Video - Interview - Ross Kingwell, Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre

Graded: Government policies in agriculture

WEEK 7


Final Exam





    Graded: Final Exam
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