Back to Agriculture, Economics and Nature
University of Western Australia

Agriculture, Economics and Nature

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

Status: Land Management
Status: Climate Change Adaptation
BeginnerCourse17 hours

Featured reviews

AO

5.0Reviewed Apr 4, 2020

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.

RP

5.0Reviewed Jul 4, 2021

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.

NT

5.0Reviewed Dec 22, 2017

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

AL

5.0Reviewed Jul 17, 2017

Great course, I learned a lot of new and interesting things. I wish I could go and continue my studies by going to UWA, maybe in the not-so-distant future :)

BA

5.0Reviewed Sep 29, 2020

This is fantastic course, This course relates with true world examples and focus more on practical education. Thank you coursera for such a nice course.

SL

5.0Reviewed Jan 25, 2025

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.

QA

5.0Reviewed Jul 19, 2020

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.

NW

5.0Reviewed Dec 20, 2018

Interesting material, good presentation and explanations. Provided some incentive to undertake other similar MOOC's if they become available.

CH

5.0Reviewed Apr 15, 2020

After completing studies in Agriculture 20+ years ago, I found this course to be a great refresher and really opened my eyes to the economics of resource management.

SA

5.0Reviewed Jan 1, 2024

Taking this course has broaden my knowledge as an extension personnel of how nature plays its role on the output of agricultural products.

DD

5.0Reviewed Jul 11, 2021

V​ery informative and educational. I attained my goals for this course which were to learn what factors are important considerations for economics in modern farming.

AS

5.0Reviewed Feb 5, 2018

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.

All reviews

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Reviewed Jun 27, 2020
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