Newsletter of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc.

Volume 17, Number 1, April 2005

CONTENTS

President’s Column

Reports to the 2004 Annual General Meeting

   President’s Report

   Secretary’s Report

   Treasurer’s Report

   AJARE Editors’ Report

   Manager – Promotion and Development’s Report

IAAE 2006

Noticeboard

Contact Details for Office Bearers and Central Office

Deadline and Advertising

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

By Deb Peterson

The Conference in Coffs Harbour in February hosted by the New England Branch provided a tremendous start to 2005. The conference featured excellent papers, stimulating discussion and learning – not to say anything about the fun social events and glorious setting! Thanks goes to the Local Organising Committee (Oscar Cacho, Christie Chang, Miriam East, Bob Farquharson, Terence Farrell, Euan Fleming, Garry Griffith, Robyn Hean, Stuart Mounter, Roley Piggott, Fiona Scott, and Russell Wise) for organising such a memorable conference. The conference also featured two workshops, one on Salinity (organised by Robyn Hean and David Pannell), and the other on ‘Trade Policy Reform in Agriculture’ (organised by Julian Alston, John O’Connor and Deborah Peterson), both of which were highly successful.

The contribution of Jeff Bennett as President of the Society in 2004 is widely recognised and greatly appreciated. In the tradition of our Society, Jeff remains on Council as Immediate Past President. Council sadly said to farewell Bill Malcolm, who concluded his time on Council as President-Elect, President and Immediate past President. Congratulations to John Mullen, who is beginning his term as President Elect.

Council said farewell to Liz Peterson, who capably served the Society as Federal Secretary for three years, but welcomed Tenille Graham as the new Secretary. Other changes include web site duties being taken over by Felicity Flugge while Atakelty Hailu is on leave (thank you Felicity!). Annie Hurst in the Central Office is also likely to play a greater role in maintenance and development of the website in the future. A subcommittee lead by Bob Farquharson (including Lili Pechey, our Manager of Promotion and Development) is taking a look at ways we can improve our site.

Looking forward to 2005 and beyond, the agenda is bright. Main items include:

• the Society's Conference in Sydney in 2006, where we will celebrate our 50^th Anniversary
• a symposium on water to be held in Perth in September

• the International Agricultural Economics Association (IAAE) Conference to be held on the Gold Coast in August 2006

I hope you have these events earmarked in your diaries.

I expect my areas of focus this year to be on increasing membership, strengthening our links with international societies, contributing to the development of the IAAE conference and, where possible, improving the management of the Society’s business arrangements. Some of the initiatives Council is exploring include adding ‘Heading East and West’ awards to encourage travel between New Zealand and Australia, multiple-year membership and direct debit renewals facilities. I am pleased to report that AARES has been offered the opportunity to host a regular Organised Symposium at the American Agricultural Economics Association Annual meetings.

As the year moves along, I would welcome communication with you. Email me at dpeterson@pc.gov.au, or give me a call on 03 9653 2284 if you have any ideas or issues that you would like to raise.

REPORTS TO THE 2005 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

President’s Report, by Deb Peterson

2004 was a year of considerable activity for the AARES Federal Council and this was representative of the energy and drive apparent in the Society as a whole. Our Journal continues to play a leading role internationally for the profession; our conferences and symposia go from strength to strength and the majority of our branches maintain active programmes of events for their members. A number of key issues have been at the forefront of Council’s deliberations during the year and I’ll take this opportunity to highlight them for members noting that many of these issues have been the subject of more detailed consideration in News and Views through the year and are dealt with in the reports of other office bearers at this AGM.

The Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics

The contract with Blackwell to publish the Journal was successfully renegotiated during the year. Members will note a number of changes resulting from those negotiations that will take effect from the first issue of Volume 49. First, there will be some minor changes to the format of the Journal designed to reduce the production costs whilst having minimal impact on readability. Second, John Mullen and Chris O’Donnell have been replaced as editors by the WA-based team of Bob Lindner, Dave Pannell and Ross Kingwell. Third, the Journal has shifted to electronic submission and article management. Finally, the editorial office function has become a component of the contract with Blackwell. Collectively, we owe a vote of thanks to John and Chris – and their team of Associate Editors and Book Review Editors – for their role in maintaining and building the strength of the Journal through the period of their editorship. We are also indebted to Bob, Dave and Ross for taking on the role, particularly given the additional challenges posed by the transition to electronic article management. It’s also important that we acknowledge the contribution made by Honey Greenwood, who managed the editorial office at UNE for the John and Chris’s reign as editors.

2004 Events

The 2004 Annual Conference, held in Melbourne, was a remarkable success from all angles – professionally, socially and, for the Society, financially. The Society’s healthy financial position is to a large degree due to the efforts and competencies of our conference Local Organising Committees, The LOC led by Mark Eigenraam and Charlotte Duke is no exception. Similarly, the 2004 Annual Symposium, held in Auckland and organized by the New Zealand Branch with Frank Scrimgeour, Geoff Kerr and Pamela Kaval in the lead provided a great opportunity for Society members to tackle complex and interesting concepts and practicalities in a convivial, supportive environment. Both events set new and higher standards of excellence. Already the 2005 Annual Conference is giving every indication that it will continue this trend and our thanks are extended to Gary Griffith and Bob Farquharson and the rest of the UNE branch LOC.

Future events

Much of the Federal Council’s deliberations over the year were focused on the planning for events scheduled for 2006...notably the AARES Annual Conference and Symposium and the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) Triennial Conference. Members will recall that our Society made an offer to host the IAAE Conference scheduled for August 2006. The position reached by the Council is that the 50th Annual AARES Conference will be hosted by the NSW Branch and held in Sydney during February 2006 with the Annual Symposium for the year being folded into the IAAE Conference in August. To avoid further ‘crowding out’ of the IAAE Conference, it has been agreed that our 2006 Annual Conference will not involve any associated workshops. The Federal Council was delighted to receive acceptances from Julian Alston and Phil Pardy as joint chairs of the Local Organising Committee for the IAAE Conference. With Mal Wegener taking on the Deputy Chair role and the ‘on-site’ chief, we have a strong team in place. Good progress is being made toward securing sponsorship for the conference and we are now confident that the Society can stage a first class event on a strong financial footing.

Central Office

With the rearrangements of the editorial office, changes have also been made to the location and staffing of the Central Office. Annie Hurst has been a very efficient and willing Central Office Manager for the past 6 months, based at the ANU in the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government, working half a day each week. Annie has attended a course on website management with the goal of her being able to provide effective assistance to Felicity Flugge from the WA Branch who has been managing the AARES web-site.

People

The support I have received from members of the Council throughout the year has been invaluable. I’d like to thank them, particularly those in the Executive, for their hard work and commitment to the Society. Some members of the team are stepping aside at this meeting and I’d like to single them out for their efforts. Liz Petersen as Secretary has been ever reliable and always helpful. Tracy Henderson as Editor of News and Views has done a great job in a very important position – always ensuring the necessary contributions are in on time for publication. I’d also like to thank Frank Scrimgeour and Geoff Kerr from the NZ branch for their efforts – beyond the organization of the Annual Symposium in Auckland – in helping me in efforts to promote stronger integration of the NZ Branch into the Society ensuring that members on both sides of the Tasman benefit through professional contact. My view is that AARES will be stronger for such closer ties and should also be looking to extend those linkages to the growing number of skilled agricultural and resource economists working in the wider Asia Pacific region.

Secretary’s Report, by Liz Petersen

Activities of the Society during 2004

1. Council of the Society

The 2004 Annual General Meeting was held on 12 February at the Sheraton Hotel, Melbourne. At the meeting, the following office bearers were elected:

President:                                             Jeff Bennett (via earlier ballot)
President Elect:                                     Deborah Peterson (via earlier ballot)

Secretary:                                             Elizabeth Petersen
Treasurer:                                              Mal Wegener
Manager Promotion and Development:     Lili Pechey

Editor, News and Views:                         Tracy Henderson

Bill Malcolm automatically assumed membership of Council on becoming Immediate Past President. The WA Editorial team (including Bob Lindner, David Pannell and Ross Kingwell) with Blackwell’s administration was elected as the new AJARE editors, with one vote in opposition. Bob Lindner is the member of the Executive Council representing AJARE.

During 2004, the following members represented their Branches at Council meetings:

Australian Capital Territory:         Jeff Bennett
New England:                      Bob Farquharson, Garry Griffith
New South Wales:               Jason Crean, John Mullen
New Zealand:                       Frank Scrimgeour
North America:                    Julian Alston

Queensland:                        Mal Wegener, George Antony
South Australia:                   Thea Mech
Victoria:                              Bill Malcolm, Deborah Peterson, Gavan Dwyer
Western Australia:               Atakelty Hailu, Ross Kingwell, Bob Lindner

2. Business of Council

Council met four times since the last AGM: 13 February 2004, 7 May 2004, 6 October 2004 and 7 February 2005.

Some of the prominent matters considered by Council in 2004 were:

·         The 2004 (Melbourne), 2005 (Coffs Harbour), 2006 (Sydney) and 2007 conferences

·         The 2006 Annual Conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economists to be held in Brisbane

·         The Annual Symposium held in New Zealand 7 October 2004

·         Developing closer links with economists in New Zealand and Australia

·         Signing a new contract with Blackwell Publishing

·         Financial management of the Society

·         Conference sponsorship

3. Committees

The following members were appointed to committees of the Society in 2004:

PhD Thesis Award Panel:                       Robyn Hean (chair), Kevin Parton, and Steve Schilizzi

Masters Thesis Award Panel:                  Mark Morrison (chair), Michael Burton, and Sarah Lumley

4. Branch Activities

Branch office bearers listed are those as at 31 December 2004.

Australian Capital Territory

President          John Kerin
Treasurer           Michael Potter
Secretary          Brenda Dyack
Councillor          Martin van Bueren

Meetings held in 2004

Other branch activities

The Branch held regular meetings, approximately fortnightly, to plan events and promote the Society.  The focus has been on encouraging participation from all 95 Branch Members.  Over 30 people generally attend seminars with joint sessions with ABARE, for example, being popular.   The Committee has discussed the importance of the Branch members in the nation’s capital to use our professional expertise to raise policy issues and provide input to national issues.

New England

President          Bob Farquharson
Treasurer          Garry Griffith
Secretary          Robyn Hean
Councillor          Bob Farquharson

Meetings held in 2004

Other branch activities

The Branch is organising the AARES 2005 Conference to be held in Coffs Harbour from 8-11 February 2005. Local Organising Committee meetings have been held on 18 May, 30 June, 12 August, 26-27 August (including a visit to Coffs Harbour), 17 September, 22 October, 24 November and 10 December.

New South Wales

President          John Madden
Treasurer           David Buckland
Secretary          Dr Inderpal Singh
Councillor          Jason Crean

Meetings held in 2004

Queensland

President          David Marchant
Treasurer           Vacant
Secretary          Tracy Henderson
Councillor          George Antony

Meetings held in 2004

South Australia

President:         Thea Mech
Secretary:         Jack Langberg
Treasurer:          Julian Morison
Committee:       Ian Cooper, Mandy Wallace, Kym Jervois

Meetings held in 2004

Victoria

President          Gavan Dwyer
Treasurer           David Appels
Secretary          David Appels

Councillor          Chris Wilcox, Michael O’Connell

Meetings held in 2004

Other branch activities

Regular lunch get-togethers are held on the last Wednesday of every month. Gavan Dwyer (president) attended NZ Symposium and the branch paid for his airfare only.

Western Australia

President          Dr Donna Brennan
Treasurer           Associate Professor Michael Burton
Secretary          Ms Sallyann Harvey
Councillor          Professor Robert Lindner

Meetings held in 2004

Joint seminar program with the University of Western Australia’s School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, convened in 2004 by Dr Jo Pluske:

*Presenters are members of the School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UWA, unless specified otherwise

New Zealand Branch

President          Frank Scrimgeour, University of Waikato
Treasurer           Phil Journeaux, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Secretary          Sarah Mackay, Environment Waikato
Councillor          Frank Scrimgeour, University of Waikato

Meetings held in 2004

Other branch activities

2004 Conference

The New Zealand branch held its winter conference at the Blenhein Country Hotel 25-26 June 2004. The principal guest speakers were Dr Keith Turner, Chief Executive, Meridian Energy, Dr Ralph Sims, Massey University Centre for Energy Research, and Mr Craig Mullet of the Ministry for the Environment. The theme of the plenary sessions was planning for future energy management. The after dinner speaker was Dr Nick Smith MP. Some 54 local members attended and 32 contributed papers were presented over the two days.

Frontiers in Resource Management:  the 7th Annual AARES Symposium

The Frontiers in Resource Management Symposium was held in Auckland at the Hilton Viaduct.  Five presenters were flown in from around the world to discuss how significant economic analysis can enhance the development and implementation of robust environmental and natural resource policies in New Zealand and Australia.  Presenters included Gary Libecap (University of Arizona), John Loomis (Colorado State University), Quentin Grafton (Australian National University), Suzi Kerr (Motu), and Brian Bell (Nimmo Bell) with topics ranging from property rights to fisheries management.  After presentations, discussion panels were held, these made for a very informative and educational symposium.  The symposium was a grand success with over 55 people in attendance (over 30% being from outside New Zealand).  The University of Waikato hosted this event with Dr. Pamela Kaval (pkaval@mngt.waikato.ac.nz) being the convenor. All Papers, presentations and abstracts are available to be downloaded at: http://wms-soros.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/NR/exeres/4C7D52F4-9255-4C8F-B515-AB2B59BFDEC5.htm

NZARES committee is looking forward to 2005 and is enthusiastic to promote both NZARES and AARES, and inject new energy.

North American Branch

President          Laura M. McCann
Treasurer/Secretary        Thomas L. Marsh
Co-Councillors   Nick Piggott, Julian Alston

Meetings held in 2004

Other branch activities

The Annual Branch meeting was held on August 2nd at Croc's Mexican Grill in Denver.  The winner of the "Heading South" Travel Award for 2005 was announced: Aaron Smith from the University of California Davis.  The Branch also recognized Kym Anderson who was made a Fellow of AAEA.  The next Branch meeting will be held in conjunction with the AAEA meetings in Providence, Rhode Island in July, 2005.

5. Prize winners

Undergraduate prize-winners: [1]

ACT:                             Remy Owen Ellis-Maurer of the Australian National University
New England:                Heidi Rogers of the University of New England
New South Wales:         Ineke Redmond of the University of Sydney
New Zealand:                 Megan Wilcox of University of Waikato
Queensland:                  Caroline Harris of the University of Queensland
South Australia:             No prize awarded
Victoria:                        No prize awarded
Western Australia:         Christopher Piesse of the University of Western Australia

Masters Prize winner: Peter Raymond Tait of Lincoln University

The title of his thesis is "Unit Pricing: Minimising Christchurch Domestic Waste".

Supervisors: Ross Cullen and Lana Friesen

PhD Prize winner: Kefyalew Mekonnen of the University of Queensland.

The title of his thesis is “The economics of developing water resource projects in the Ethiopian Nile River Basin, their environmental, and Tran boundary implications”

Supervisor: Malcolm Wegener

Prize for the Best Article in the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics:

Terry Anderson

The title of the article is "Donning Coase-coloured glasses: a property rights view of natural resource economics"

AARES /AAEA Young Professionals Exchange Travel Award - Heading South

Aaron Smith of the University of California - Davis

AARES /AAEA Young Professionals Exchange Travel Award - Heading North

Atakelty Hailu of the University of Western Australia

Distinguished Fellows

Neil Sturgess

Roley Piggott

Brian Hardaker

Distinguished Life Member

There were no nominations for a Distinguished Life Member

Treasurer’s Report, by Malcolm Wegener

Financial position

Cheque account

The balance in the Society’s cheque account on 31 December 2003, after reconciliation for unpresented cheques was $10 682.42.

Fixed deposits

In 2004, the majority of the Society’s surplus funds were invested in fixed deposits with the Commonwealth Bank.  In order to increase interest income, funds not immediately required in the General Account were transferred into a Cash Management Trust account, also with the Commonwealth Bank.   Details of these investments are provided in the tables below.

Investment Schedule

Cash Management Trust Account

The Society is fortunate in having made substantial surpluses from its annual conferences in recent years and the 2003 symposium.  These funds make up the majority of the Society’s investments which are of sufficient size to buffer it against any downturn in income.  This is essential because the Society does not generate sufficient income from membership subscriptions to meet all of its operating costs. 

Statement of financial performance

The Society had another financially successful year in 2004 with an operating surplus approaching $47 000.  A copy of the statement of financial performance for 2004 is presented in the next table. 

Subscriptions are the main source of Society income and were slightly lower in 2004 than the previous year reflecting lower membership numbers in 2003.  Membership in 2004 returned to previous levels and an increased level of subscription income can be expected next year.  The 2004 conference in Melbourne generated another healthy surplus for the Society of $48 367.

The main costs for the Society are the cost of maintaining the editorial office for the Journal.  In 2004 with the appointment of a new team of Journal editors at the University of Western Australia, Council took the opportunity to separate the Central Office functions from the Editorial office.  Starting with the 2005 edition, manuscripts for the Journal will be submitted and handled electronically and part of the work of assembling copy for the Journal will be carried out by Blackwell’s office rather than by the Society. 

If revenue generating activities such as the annual conference and symposia and discretional expenditure such as branch payments are excluded, the Society’s annual costs are below the level of subscription income.    Provided membership numbers are maintained, and the structure of the Society’s costs does not change, subscription rates can be maintained around their current level.

Statement of financial performance, 2004

 Notes and explanations:

1. Surplus of $20 357.54 from 2003 symposium shown as sundry debtor $18 943 in 2003 accounts.  There was no surplus from 2004 event held in Auckland.

2. Includes cost of establishing AJARE editorial office at UWA in July 2004

3. AARES Central Office transferred from UNE Armidale to ANU Canberra in September 2004 and functions separated from journal editing.

4. Council agreed to make branch payments based on 31 December membership and contingent on receipt of branch reports from secretaries. 5. Conference expenses were higher than normal because an accommodation deposit was required by venue for 2005 conference.

5. Conference expenses are higher than previous years because an accommodation deposit was required by venue for 2005 conference.

6. Council decided during 2002 to re-name the Alan Lloyd Fellowship Fund as the Distinguished Fellows Fund and agreed to replenish the Fund in view of the substantial surpluses made from annual conferences and symposia in the previous two years.  An amount of $30 000 of the Society’s funds, held as part of the funds on Fixed Deposit with the Commonwealth Bank, was reserved to fund the Distinguished Fellows’ address at Annual Conferences over the next five years, with the option of continuing the lecture series for a further five years if considered desirable.

Statement of Financial Position, 2004

Audit

The accounts for the Society for 2004 have been audited by Mr John Johnstone.  His report was received and considered by the Council at its meeting on 8 February 2005.   The returns required by the Victorian Corporate Affairs Commission from the Public Officer for the Society were duly submitted during the year.

GST

Both the Federal Council of the Society and each of its state branches are registered for Goods and Services Tax and quarterly BAS statements have been submitted regularly since the tax was introduced.

In the past, conference and symposium income has been brought to account for GST payment purposes once the accounts for these events have been finalized, thus delaying the GST payments.  It is proposed to bring these cash flows to account progressively and pay the GST as it falls due.  This will not affect the total GST payments but will change the timing of some of them.

The following table summarises Society cash flows and GST activity in the past year.

Each of the AARES branches is registered for GST under a group scheme.  Each branch uses the same ABN as the parent body with extra numbers added to identify each sub-entity.  There is provision in the tax legislation for non-profit sub-entities to apply for a separate ABN and they can then choose whether or not they register for GST.  This provision would eliminate the need for branches with their small turnover to register for GST, complete quarterly BAS forms, and pay GST.

Summary of GST payments for 2004 (cash basis)

Branch grants

The branches receive a base grant of $300 in addition to $7.50 per ordinary member or equivalent plus a $24 bonus for each new member recruited during the year.  Details of membership numbers and branch payments are provided in the following table.

This year, Council agreed to make branch payments based on 31 December membership rather than on the numbers at the end of October as in previous years and contingent on receipt of branch reports from secretaries.  All reports have been received and grants are ready to be transferred to branches.

New South Wales, Victoria, and ACT branches experienced significant growth in membership during the past year, largely attributed to activities such as the annual conference and the symposium being held there.  While a number of new members are recruited through these activities, there are significant losses of existing members resulting in continuous turnover in the membership.

Branch membership 2001-2004 and branch grants 2004

*This total does not include 103 new members who indicated their desire to join the Society at the Market Based Instruments workshop held in Canberra.

Society Management

The editorial office for AJARE was transferred from the University of New England to the University of Western Australia while Blackwell Publishing office in Melbourne will take on more of the work of handling manuscripts prior to publication.  At the same time, the AARES Central Office was transferred to ANU.  The new arrangements will allow the Society to monitor the cost of these two activities and exercise some cost control.

During the past year, netbanking facilities were opened for the Society’s main account and a Cash Management Trust Account was opened to deposit surplus funds and gain a higher rate of interest.

To date, the Society has funded all of the expenditure in preparation for the International Conference of Agricultural Economists to be held in August 2006.  Advance funding of $30 000 have been received from the IAAE and sponsorship for the conference from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing for the 2006 conference has been approved so that expenses paid by the Society can now be reimbursed.

Recent discussions with a number of potential sponsors for the 2006 IAAE conference has put the conference onto a much better financial basis and discussions with the IAAE executive about changes to the program, to include a plenary session focusing on natural disasters, should result in a conference with much more appeal to Australian and international delegates.  Thus many of the financial and other concerns associated with the international conference have been reduced but it still remains a challenging task for the Society. 

AJARE Editors’ Report

New Editors

The new editors of the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (l to r, Ross Kingwell, Bob Lindner and David Pannell) are very grateful to the previous editors, Chris O’Donnell and John Mullen, for their help in ensuring a smooth transition.  The new editors consider Chris and John have done an excellent job as editors, and have handed over the Journal in a healthy state.

The outgoing editors started passing on incoming reviews of papers in process to the WA team from May 2004 when they were satisfied that they had enough manuscripts in hand for Volume 48.  Bob, David and Ross took over all responsibilities as editors of AJARE on 1 July, 2004. 

This report is a condensed version of the recent Editors' Report to the Annual General Meeting at Coffs Harbour for the calendar year 2004, and also contains extra information that was not available at that time.

1.      Statistics.  Summary statistics on numbers of pages and articles printed, papers received, decisions taken, papers under review and the ranking of the Journal are provided in the table overleaf.  Highlights include: 

·         An increase in the number of new submissions in 2004 to 76, which is the second highest level for the past 6 years. At least in part, this strong outcome is due to increased efforts by the publishers and the previous editors to solicit papers from relevant symposia and conferences. 

·         The incoming editors are very grateful to the previous editors, Chris O'Donnell and John Mullen for their help in ensuring a smooth transition, and for passing on such a strong stock of potentially publishable papers.

·         An improvement in the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) ranking of the Journal from 121/166 in 2002 to 78/169 in 2003 (2004 rankings will not be available until June).

·         An acceptance rate for new papers in excess of 40%, which is somewhat higher than it has been in recent years.

·         Two papers that were ready for Issue 4 of Volume 48 had to be held over to Issue 1 of Volume 49 because of space constraints.

2       2.     Manuscript Central Electronic Editorial and Management System.
A significant development during the year was the launch of a web based electronic editorial management system called Manuscript Central. From December 1 2004, authors have been able to submit papers electronically to AJARE via the new Manuscript Central AJARE web site. As a result, the editorial office should be more efficient, more accessible, and fully secure. A benefit of particular interest to submitting authors is the ability to track the progress of their paper online as it makes its way through the review process.
Authors intending to submit manuscripts to the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics should login to the AJARE Manuscript Central web site,
 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ajare where they can create a new account. 

3.       Changes to the Editorial Office.
Following a decision by the 2004 Incoming Federal Council, Blackwell will take over responsibility for administration of the AJARE editorial office.
Members might like to note that papers submitted prior to the establishment of the Manuscript Central AJARE web site on December 1 2004 will continue to be handled by an interim administrative assistant Bronwyn Hatwell at UWA, and correspondence regarding these papers should be addressed to croweb@cyllene.uwa.edu.au Papers submitted via the Manuscript Central AJARE web site after December 1 2004 will be handled by the new Blackwell administrative assistant, Georgina Nunn, and any correspondence regarding these papers should be addressed to
ajare@blackwellpublishingasia.com.

4.       Editorial Policy .
The incoming editors are committed to publishing a journal that is valued by time challenged readers for only publishing relatively concise accounts of scholarly research. We have reviewed and revised the guidelines to authors and reviewers, and have tightened up on compliance with the guidelines to authors.  In particular, we intend to ensure that manuscript length is consistent with the word limit of 7,000 words for articles, and 9,000 words for reviews published in the guidelines to authors.  For Policy Forum papers, we think that the preferred length should be about 3,000 words, and that the maximum length should be 5,000 words. 

Bob Lindner, University of Western Australia,

David Pannell, University of Western Australia,

Ross Kingwell, Department of Agriculture, Western Australia,

Editors, AJARE

Summary Information 1999-2002

                                                                 2001                2002                2003                2004 

Published Volumes

Volume Number                                     45                    46                     47                    48

Number of Issues                                   4                       4                       4                       4

Page Budget                                          672                  672                  672                  664

Pages ^a                                                    662                  648                  594                  664

Articles                                                      23                    20                     17                    22

Surveys                                                      0                       1                       0                       0

Notes/Comments                                    0                       2                       2                       0

Policy Forum Papers                              2                       3                       4                       2

Book Reviews                                         22                    22                     21                    16

Obituaries                                                 0                       3                       0                       0

Papers Received^b

New                                                           66                    89                     57                    76

Revised                                                    21                    29                     30                    27

Total                                                          87                   118                   87                   103

Decisions Taken

Accept                                                       17                    26                     17                    32

Revise and resubmit                             21                    43                     25                    20

Reject                                                       36                    39                     36                    37

Withdrawn                                                 1                       0                       0                       2

Total ^c                                                        75                   108                   78                    91

Acceptance Rate (%)^d                           26                    29                     30                    42

Papers under review at 31 Dec.        23                    33                     42                    30

ISI Ranking                                          79/160           121/166           78/169               n.a.

ISI Impact Factor^e                               0.569               0.346               0.653                n.a.

^a   Includes editorial text and Blackwell advertising as per agreement with Blackwell.

^b   Book reviews and obituaries are not included; each resubmission of the same paper is counted separately.

^c   The total number of decisions does not always equal the total number of papers received because some decisions are made in respect of papers received in the previous year(s).

^d Acceptance rate in year x = (papers accepted in year x)/(new papers received in year x) × 100.

^e Impact factor in year x  =  .

Manager – Promotion and Development

Membership

It has been a good year for membership with 196 new members joining the Society. Standout efforts go to the Victorian and New South Wales branches that attracted 45 and 44 new members, respectively.

Members who experience any difficulties associated with the processing of their membership are encouraged to contact Annie Hurst at the AARES Central Office.

Conference Sponsorship

AARES gratefully acknowledges the support of its sponsors. The Conference would not be a possible without them. This year, our sponsors were:

• Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
• Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
• Productivity Commission
• Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation
• Grains Research and Development Council
• Land and Water Australia
• CSIRO
• NSW Farmers Federation
• University of New England

Sponsorship for the pre-conference workshops has been generously given by the following organisations:

• CRC for Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity
• Dairy Australia
• Farm Foundation

I also gratefully acknowledge the in-kind contributions from Rural Press Limited and NSW DPI.

Promotion

Society promotional material was provided to a number of events throughout the year, including:

• 3 Deakin University Open Days
• ABARE regional OUTLOOK days
• Economic Education Conference (SA)

If you know of any upcoming events at which you think it would be appropriate for AARES to be promoted, please contact me.

News and Views / AARES Web Page

Qld branch member Tracy Henderson will no longer be acting as News and Views Editor in 2005. I would like to acknowledge her tireless work in producing News and Views over the last few years. Tracy’s enthusiastic efforts have greatly improved communication of important society information.

I’m happy to report that we have a new editor in Richard Reeve who is currently studying his Masters at the University of Western Australia. Richard can be contacted at: reever01@student.uwa.edu.au or (08) 6488-4633.

Thanks are also due to AARES Web Manager Atakelty Hailu (WA) who publishes the newsletter on our web site. While Atakelty is on sabbatical Felicity Flugge (WA) has been acting in his role. Our thanks extend to Felicity for her contributions.

In 2005, I will be working with Felicity, Gavan Dwyer (Vic), Bob Farquharson (New England) and Annie Hurst to improve the web site. Please contact me if you have suggestions for helping us in this endeavour.

IAAE-2006

International Association of Agricultural Economists, 26^th Triennial Conference, August 12-18, 2006, Gold Coast Exhibition and Convention Centre, Queensland, Australia

This conference is jointly convened by the International Association of Agricultural Economists and AARES.   The conference theme is: The Contribution of Agricultural Economics to Critical Policy Issues.  We expect 800-1,000 delegates from around the world to participate, and we are hoping for a substantial involvement of members of AARES both on the program and as general delegates.

A conference web page has been established at http://www.iaae-agecon.org/AusConf/index.html, and soon will be accessible via the IAAE home page. This site contains current information about all aspects of the conference.  As plans evolve, this site will be updated frequently.  This will be the best source for information about the conference.  It includes contact details for the organizers if you want to contact them for any reason.

The Australian Organizing Committee, led by Julian Alston, Phil Pardey, and Mal Wegener, is working with the Vice President of the IAAE, Keijiro Otsuka. and the IAAE Executive to plan the conference.  Preparations for the program are progressing, and AARES members will have opportunities to participate in a variety of ways.

The conference activities will begin on Saturday, August 12, 2006 with four pre-conference workshops on (1) Biotechnology, (2) Trade, (3) China, and (4) Water Policy, as well as a learning session on Valuation of Environmental Services.  AARES is responsible for organizing the pre-conference workshop on Water Policy and David Pannell and Deborah Peterson have accepted Council’s invitation to take the lead on this one. 

The conference proper will begin on Sunday, August 13, and it will be structured around six main plenary sessions.  The plenary sessions will include the Elmhirst Lecture, to be presented by Hans Binswanger, and the Presidential Address, to be presented by Prabhu Pingali.  In other plenary sessions, panels of speakers will address the themes (1) Economics of Natural Disasters, (2) Trade and Marketing of Agricultural Commodities in a Globalizing World, (3) Risk, Food Safety, and Health, and (4) Transformation of Unfavorable Areas; Technologies, Institutions, and Market Access, emphasizing the policy challenges that these topics present to agricultural and resource economists.  Details of the speakers and topics for these plenary sessions will be in place by April 2005.

In addition, the conference will include (1) invited panels, in parallel sessions and (2) discussion groups and mini-symposia.  Vice President Otsuka is in charge of the conference program and he is soliciting suggestions for proposals for invited panel sessions and topics to be addressed in discussion groups.  Please send proposals and suggestions to Kei Otsuka (otsuka@grips.ad.jp) as soon as possible.

The conference will also include contributed papers and poster papers.  Deadlines for submissions of contributed papers and poster papers will be October 31, 2005 and January 15, 2006, respectively.  Contributed papers and poster papers will be selected for inclusion on the conference program in a competitive process.  Professors Reurd Ruben and Kees Burger will co-chair the contributed papers and Professors Willi Meyers and Vince Smith will co-chair the poster papers.  The detailed calls for submissions may be found on the conference web site via the IAAE home page at http://www.iaae-agecon.org/AusConf/index.html

AARES members are encouraged to participate as much as possible in the various elements of the conference program, and this means submitting ideas for invited panels, discussion groups and mini-symposia, and making submissions to the contributed papers and poster papers competitions. 

If you have any questions about the conference, or ideas to offer, please feel free to contact the conference secretariat:

Rhonda Hendicott

Event Manager

Conference of International Association of Agricultural Economists

C/- Hoteliers International

PO Box 12563

George Street Post Shop

BRISBANE QLD 4003

AUSTRALIA

Email: iaae@hoteliersint.com

Tel: +617 3210 1646

Fax: +617 3210 1606

NOTICEBOARD

Nominations for President-Elect and Distinguished Fellowships

The Nominations Committee calls for nominations for President-Elect and Distinguished Fellowships for the year 2006. Formal nominations should be submitted to Jeff Bennett by Thursday, June 30, 2005 (Fax 02 6125 8448; Jeff.Bennett@anu.edu.au; postal: Director, Graduate Studies in Environmental Management and Development, Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government , ANU, Canberra). Nominations for President-Elect should be dated and signed by the nominator, a seconder, and the candidate.

Distinguished Fellowships are awarded to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to agricultural and resource economics and/or the activities of AARES. Past winners of this prestigious award are shown on the AARES web page at: http://www.come.to/aares (Archives/Records). Nominations should include a brief biography.

Connections

If you went to AARES 2005 and presented a paper have you got a publication plan? Within the network of Australian agricultural economics and agribusiness you have a number of options including AJARE, Australian Agribusiness Review, Australian Agribusiness Perspectives and Connections: Farm, Food and Resource Issues. If you are an AARES member you will know that AJARE is the Society's flagship research publication. The other three publications reside at the University of Melbourne managed website: www.agrifood.info

Connections is an AARES e-publication which publishes occasional papers on farm, food and resource issues. The best way to become familiar with what we may be prepared to publish is to have a look at the site and the guidelines to authors. Connection is editor refereed, so publication can be quite speedy. If you have published a number of papers on your research or contributed a number of papers to AARES or other conferences you may like to consider an overview article about your work, which links readers to your research papers.

Send Bill Malcolm or myself an email if you would like to discuss possibilities. We like to engage with authors to help you consider options for your work and to develop your idea. In his position as editor of Review, Perspectives and Connections Bill is able to help you to the best outlet among those three. If you are aiming for Research or Forum articles then you should contact the editors of AJARE. We encourage the idea that if you have put the effort into a conference paper then its worth considering all your publication options.
Editors: Bill Malcolm and Glenn Ronan glenn.ronan@state.sa.gov.au (08) 8207 7903
 

CONTACT DETAILS FOR OFFICE BEARERS AND CENTRAL OFFICE

DEADLINE AND ADVERTISING

The deadline for receipt of any items for inclusion in the next edition of AARES News & Views is 15 July 2005. Please send items to Richard Reeve reever01@student.uwa.edu.au

Advertisements in AARES News and Views are welcomed. The mailing list for News & Views exceeds 700. Advertising cost is $55 (including GST). Enquiries to LPechey@abare.gov.au