Browsing by Author "Seboa, Dannyboy"
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- ItemQuantifying financial returns from commercial forestry research trials in the Zululand Region of KwaZulu-Natal(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Seboa, Dannyboy; Ham, Cori; Ackerman, Simon; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Agrisciences. Dept. of Forest and Wood Science.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South African plantation production is depended on a limited land resource. This limitation in land drives the goal of increasing production from the same land area. There is however a growing necessity for the justification of additional investments made towards intensive forest management practices. Thus, intensive forest management practices should maximize production yields at a reduced cost per hectare. This study investigated site-specific financial returns of research field trials conducted at the ICFR. These trials included: (i) Site-Potential focusing on site specific fertiliser recommendations (FR), (ii) Forest management focusing on residue management (RM), vegetation and coppice management (VCM) and Eucalyptus regeneration (ER). According to the ICFR, these are the relevant research areas to address key challenges facing the South African forestry industry. The studied research trials where located in the Zululand region of KwaZulu-Natal. The region predominantly consists of Eucalyptus grandis, Eucalyptus grandis hybrids and other Eucalyptus species. The area is further considered to be highly productive for Eucalyptus grandis hybrids and clones. Reported research findings were collected using a Meta-analyses Framework as an extractive tool. Thereafter, financial returns were determined using generic discounted cash-flow (DCF) models, which was followed by a sensitivity analyses to test results from the DCF models. Due to insufficient information presented from the Meta-analyses framework for ER research trials a cost comparison study was initiated on them. The results from this study showed financial returns in FR research trials ranging from R49 201 and R273 524 ha-1 based on Land Expectation Values (LEVs) and 10 to 29% in Internal Rate of Returns (IRRs), the financial gains did differ per site. However, for mid-rotation FR research trials there were no financial gains. Financial returns for RM research trials declined through successive rotations, this could possibly be caused by soil compaction and the specific residue management techniques. Lastly, the financial returns for VCM research trials (vegetation management) and coppice management research trial returns were highly depended on cost-effective coppice reduction techniques. Based on the results, the generic DCF model developed was successful in quantifying site-specific financial returns of three (FR, RM and VCM) of the four studied research fields.