Economic Tools for Agricultural Resource Management

The Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (QPIF) has launched a pilot website that provides an array of web-based decision support tools for producers that will help to incorporate and calculate the real costs associated with natural resource management.

The whole farm budgets tools set out the potential consequences of decisions for the farm as a whole such as adding new fences, off stream watering points and reducing fertiliser use. The whole farm budget projects total production and income, and incorporates all capital, fixed and variable costs.

The pilot economics web portal features 100 tools for cropping and livestock industries in Queensland. The portal contains generic financial and farm management tools, with the planning tools grouped into four main categories: whole farm budgets, gross margins, animals and generic.

The QPIF has produced economic and financial management tools for many years as part of its extension services, but until now they have not been able to provide them as a co-ordinated package.

This new website will make the tools more accessible and raise their profile to maximise their use. Through the pilot, QPIF will be looking at how effectively the website is at sharing the tools with its stakeholders, and how web 2.0 technologies might be used to enhance QPIF's extension services.