The focus of the production economics webinar will be to identify

(a) how to evaluate an agricultural or other enterprise (e.g. at the individual enterprise level), and

(b) how to evaluate performance of an agricultural or business sector.

The focus of evaluation at the enterprise level will be Gross Margin Analysis. These are widely used to compare returns from different crops and production systems. The webinar will identify what Gross Margins are, how they can be developed, and how to interpret them.

The focus of evaluation at the industry level will be Productivity analysis, where the challenge is to identify how production relative to inputs are changing over time, as well as to identify what key drivers of productivity change are.

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In follow up to our successful Rural Economic Development courses in 2019 and in conjunction with our partners CQUniversity, USQ, UQ and James Cook University, the Rural Economies Centre of Excellence will offer a series of economic development training courses throughout 2020.

Our intention is to build on the foundations laid by the initial training courses that were offered around the state in 2019.

The program is aimed at people working with economic development issues in regional Queensland, with more specific aims including:

1. Offer more targeted training that follows on from the introductory programs in 2019

2. Make the courses accessible to a broad range of people across regional Queensland

3. Build awareness and familiarity of different economic tools

4. Providing skills development for professionals especially those working in and with rural and regional communities

Virtual Mode of Offering

The courses will be offered in virtual mode by Zoom and via link provided once the participant is registered.

Each session will involve a one hour lecture, followed by another hour of discussion, examples and exercises.

This will be streamed from CQU Rockhampton and other locations such as Cairns, Toowoomba and Brisbane. Anyone with an internet connection should be able to participate however we will limit registrations to a maximum of 40 participants per session so as to allow for active participation in the Q & A section of the webinar.

Introducing the Presenter: Prof John Rolfe , CQUniversity

Professor John Rolfe is Professor of Regional Economic Development at the School of Business and Law at the Central Queensland University (CQU). John is a highly experienced and widely published academic with expertise in non-market valuation, regional development analysis, and economic impact assessment in regional areas.