Sound economic thinking is crucial for farmers because they depend on good economic decision making to survive. Governments depend on economic information to make good policy decisions on behalf of the community. This course will help you to contribute to better decision making by farmers, or by agencies servicing agriculture, and it will help you to understand why farmers respond to policies and economic opportunities in the ways they do. You can use this course to improve your skills and knowledge and to assess whether this is a subject that you'd like to study further. The course includes high-quality video lectures, interviews with experts, demonstrations of how to build economic models in spreadsheets, practice quizzes, and a range of recommended readings and optional readings. Assessment is by quizzes and a final exam. The key economic principles that we’ll learn about can help us understand changes that have occurred in agriculture, and support improved decision making about things like agricultural production methods, agricultural input levels, resource conservation, and the balance between agricultural production and its environmental impacts. There are literally thousands of agricultural economists around the world who work on these issues, so there is a wealth of knowledge to draw on for the course. Watch a brief video about our course here: https://youtu.be/Y8OGswUXx48
Excellent course and presenter! I is very useful to revise important economic and environmental concepts and also to learn more agriculture. It is very useful for me.Thanks Prof. David
Very informative and educational. I attained my goals for this course which were to learn what factors are important considerations for economics in modern farming.
The whole course gave me economic insight of the agriculture. Also, prepared me to see the agriculture projects and products from the economic perspective's. I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions.
A very insightful course. This course provided all the lessons from the very basic to the core of agricultural and environmental economics.
Very rich syllabus and highly interesting course. Thinking of applying for MSc. in Agric Economics, I never give it a thought until I took this course. Thanks to the University of Western AUSTRALIA.
Interesting material, good presentation and explanations. Provided some incentive to undertake other similar MOOC's if they become available.
This course is highly informative for a beginner. The materials provided are so useful. I enjoyed the whole learning experience as an outsider from another field of knowledge.
This was a fantastic learning experience. Professor Pannell is a brilliant teacher, researcher, reasoner, economist! This course was interesting, relevant and useful - I highly recommend it.
I enjoyed listening to David and his understanding of the subject. I especially enjoyed that every module was finished with an actual interview with a farmer in Western Australia.
Clear and concise teaching, combined with helpful and accessible resources. A good basic guide to agriculture and agricultural related economics.
For those who are interested in understanding the relationship between agriculture and economy this is the course. Look no further.
Taking this course has broaden my knowledge as an extension personnel of how nature plays its role on the output of agricultural products.
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This was a fantastic learning experience. Professor Pannell is a brilliant teacher, researcher, reasoner, economist! This course was interesting, relevant and useful - I highly recommend it.
Excellent course and presenter! I is very useful to revise important economic and environmental concepts and also to learn more agriculture. It is very useful for me.
Thanks Prof. David
The whole course gave me economic insight of the agriculture. Also, prepared me to see the agriculture projects and products from the economic perspective's. I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions.
It's a beautiful course! Not only did I learn more (than I estimated) about economics and agriculture, there was also a nice balance between theory and practical applications. The recommended readings are relatable and reinforce the content of the videos. As a teacher, Dave is careful to present both sides of any issue (for example, he presents both gylphosate as the largest used herbicide, while maintaining that it is also very controversial). Pannell Discussions are a delight to read, since they deliver the intended content without sounding like research papers, which sometimes they may actually be based upon. It's wonderful to see such researchers having the patience to blog about such issues online! At a more subtle level, things like the location choices (farms for the agricultural weeks and buildings for institutional/policy weeks), altering background music - all made enriched my experience!
Ofcourse, I think I will still have to brush up my concepts from time to time (since an online course can not replace internalization of a subject through rigorous comprehension and examination), and ofcourse I have quite a lot more to "learn" in this area (who doesn't? :P).
But the course was a very informative, balanced and highly interesting introduction for me!
I have a passion for agriculture and providing quality foods for the less privileged. With this course I have discovered that being a good farmer goes beyond planting your seeds into the soil, but ensuring you have a good economic and agricultural plan to sustain you in all market settings.
Thanks David Panell for your insightful lectures.
Very rich syllabus and highly interesting course. Thinking of applying for MSc. in Agric Economics, I never give it a thought until I took this course. Thanks to the University of Western AUSTRALIA.
As an agro-food value chain and private sector development consultant and pharma and agro-food industries operations executive, this course "Agriculture, Economics and Nature" presented by Prof. David Pannell has improved my experience and knowledge. Prof. David Pannell really well-prepared the course lessons. I highly recommend this course if you want to learn modern and sustainable management of agriculture, its economy and conservation of the nature and biodiversity with key challenges and pathways, take this course on Coursera. Thank you Prof. David Pannell, University of Western Australia and Coursera.
Dear Coursera I learned a lot from this course, which I didn't know before. Especially, I got a detailed idea about Agriculture, Economics and Nature. I hope, this education will help me a lot in my study as well my professional life. First of all, thanks to Coursera for comming up with such a course. And of course special thanks to Professor David Pannell, who presented and taught the course brilliantly with his effort and sincerity. Thanks again to everyone who are related with this course. Thanks Pallab Biswas
I am deeply grateful for this transformative course in agricultural economics, which has sharpened my ability to make bold, informed decisions in a farming enterprise. The dynamic blend of expert lectures, hands on modeling and insightful assessments has ignited my confidence to see opportunities where prior to taking this course I had limitations. With these powerful tools, I am now equipped to drive innovation, resilience and sustainable impact in agriculture and beyond.
I was able to get a lot of information and a good knowledge about the agriculture economic.I appreciate the introduction as well as the floating of this course.I think this course pointed out me a way to reach my goals.This course must be a great resource if someone want to touch the agriculture economic with nature.
A wonderful course indeed. Vital concepts in agricultural economics, environment and policy aptly explained. Recommended for anyone interested in getting a grasp of the subject.
This course is highly informative for a beginner. The materials provided are so useful. I enjoyed the whole learning experience as an outsider from another field of knowledge.
I learnt a lot that I think it will help me in my field. Thou they are all like revision but the approach to the teaching were interesting to me.
Appropriate course to know about agricultural ecomics and also about environmental concern related to agriculture....
Excellent introduction to agricultural economics.
I enjoyed the class and it was very insightful.
Felt very mechanical. In-depth explanation would have been more interesting.
This course provided valuable insights into the intersection of agriculture, economics, and environmental sustainability. It covered key concepts such as resource management, economic decision-making in agriculture, and the impact of policies on sustainable farming. The content was well-structured, with real-world examples that highlighted the importance of balancing productivity and environmental conservation. It’s a great course for anyone interested in agricultural sustainability and economic principles in farming.
This was indeed a privilege. The program is top-notch. It actually challenged me to be very attentive to details and didn't condemn me to failure. The interviews were so excellent. The quiz helped to point out key lessons from the lecture, and it came with its own challenges also; you just have to face them. And I'm sure the best thing that ever happened was the simplicity and rich store of knowledge of the lecturer who took the course. It's a shout-out to Mr David Pannell. He is indeed the best for the course.
An excellent course. I think the agricultural examples are very useful tools for illustrating a number of microeconomic principles. As the lectures pointed out, agriculture as we think of it now has been around for about 10,000 years. It is certainly critical for the survival of the world's population.
The lectures and accompanying notes were very useful. From a personal perspective, the course was time well-spent and I would highly recommend this course to all prospective students.