Risk perceptions and nutrient management responses in the Australian sugar industry: preliminary results from the Herbert River district

A large gap exists in the knowledge and understanding of the attitudes which sugar producers have toward risk, and in particular, the effect that risk has on the use of agricultural chemicals and fertilisers in the sugar industry. Typically, farm level risk analyses have used price and yield variability almost exclusively to represent risk. Results from a survey of 120 sugar producers in the Herbert River district indicated that a broad range of sources of variability such as soil type, crop class, weather and variety is considered in nutrient management strategies. Producers also used a variety of management responses to variability. These included method and timing of fertiliser application, irrigation, drainage, trash retention and green manuring. These preliminary results have important implications for research, extension and policy programs. In particular, there is strong evidence to suggest that a number of criteria used by decision makers to develop nutrient management strategies vary across geographic regions within a cane growing district and among farms within each geographic region. The design of fertiliser recommendation· strategies and extension programs must account for geographic variability at a higher spatial level than presently. exists. So risk models which consider only sugar price and yield variability, underestimate the importance of other sources of risk in the decision making process.