Farm forestry - it's 'no sure bet'

摘要

Having spent the last three years developing whole-farm models to assess the economic performance of farm forestry options, one thing is clear - farm forestry is no sure bet. Models developed for the New England Regional Plantation Committee includeAGROFARM, which simulates adding a forestry enterprise to an existing farm business. Experimentation with AGROFARM and other models including FarmTree, Agroforestry Calculator and ACTFM reveal how financially sensitive farm forestry is and how often theenterprise can have a poor out-come. Internal rates of return for plantation forestry range from negative to as high as 13 percent. NSW State Forests work on a rate of return of around 4 to 6 percent for hardwood plantations on the north coast. This might increase 1 to 2 percent if carbon credit trading eventuates. While some forestry returns compare well to traditional agricultural enterprises, plantation forestry has several financial stumbling blocks which must be solved to improve uptake and investment.