Sustainability of rural enterprises

Order Description

Core Objectives

The core objectives being assessed are:

CO5. Explain sustainability from an urban and rural land use perspective
CO6. Identify the likely changes to land use and land use planning from climate change

Assessment Description

General description of assessment – as per Course Outline

You are asked to provide a report on the sustainability issues for an agricultural enterprise. Your report should discuss the potential impacts of climate change and other key sustainability issues relevant to the specific industry. The report will also need to discuss how the industry and individual farmers are responding to these challenges, whether these responses are likely to be adequate and other actions that could be taken to ensure the sustainability of the farms, industry and local communities.

Additional description

You are a consultant and you are being asked to produce a report for an individual who is looking to invest in a farming business.

The investor requires advice that overviews the sustainability of a particular farm business, which will help them understand the risks and opportunities.

Your report should cover ONE of the following farm businesses:

Rice growing in New South Wales, or
Cattle production in the Northern territory for the live export trade, or
Salmonid production in Tasmania

Your advice to the investor should be provided in the form of a professional business report. The investor has requested that the report discuss the following:

the potential impacts of climate change and other important sustainability issues relevant to the farming business
how the industry and individual farmers are responding to these challenges and whether these responses are likely to be adequate and
other actions that could be taken to ensure the sustainability of the farming business, industry and local communities

You will need to validate your report with suitable research and references. The report should conclude with recommendations to the investor with respect to the sustainability of the farming business.

Your report is required by 11:00pm, Wednesday, 20 May 2015 submitted electronically through the course website.

Guidance on this report

The description refers to ‘industry’. Most types of farming have an industry body that has an overarching role to support members of the industry body. Your research should include a search for information at the industry scale. Farming businesses are an important part of the local rural community and this needs some consideration with respect to sustainability – as per the third dot point.
Report language & writing style – this is a professional business report, please use an appropriate level of formality but not overly technical. Written communication skills are an important part of all business communication: clear, concise, logically ordered and grammatically correct. If written English is not your strength please use the resources below to get support in improving your written skills.
Report structure – use the suggested resource below to gain an understanding of report writing. Your report is an analytical-style report and it is expected that you will include the following sections: title, introduction, overview of literature/prior research, recommendations and a bibliography. The ‘meat’ of this report, and the credibility of your recommendations, is based on the literature review/research and your synthesis of this into recommendations. There is a ‘tight’ word count for this report – you can’t afford to waffle or waste words with unnecessary duplication. The bibliography is not included in the word count.
Referencing – use the Harvard referencing style. Make sure you understand the difference between a reference list and a bibliography. Referencing can be tricky but it is well-explained through the suggested resources and there is no excuse to lose marks through poor referencing. As a rough guide you should use a minimum of 5 credible and relevant resources. But the more you read, the more you will learn and the quality of your report will be improved.

Submission, marking and return of assignment

This report must be completed by week 10 and only unexpected or exceptional circumstances will be considered a good cause for an extension in the final week as described in Section 7.8 of the 2015 UniSA Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual.

Staff will aim to mark assignments within 2 weeks of receiving them.

A mark and comment for this assignment will be provided through the learn-online grade book system.

Each section will be marked against the standards specified in the feedback form. Comments for this assignment will be provided on a feedback form in compliance with the University assessment policies and procedures. You will find the feedback form that will be used for this assignment on the course web site.

Without an extension, assignments submitted after the deadline will be penalised 10% per each 24 hours past the deadline for up to 7 days (168 hours) past the deadline, after which no marks will be awarded

Academic Integrity

All university assignments submitted electronically are tested using text comparison software called Turnitin. This software generates a similarity index for all submitted assignments. All reports will be closely scrutinised for academic misconduct and you are advised to test for any possible breaches by submitting a draft of your report before the due date. You can submit as many revisions as you want up until the deadline, but post-deadline revisions – including those revised in regard to a Turnitin index score – are not accepted unless you elect to take the appropriate penalty for late submission when allowed. As such, you are encouraged to submit any draft report well before the deadline in the event you would like to make changes. Once satisfied that your report does not breach University academic integrity policies, you can complete the final edit and re-submit up to the due date.

Suggested resources

Report writing – UniSA’s School of Business teaching and learning resources – http://resource.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=25410&chapterid=11100 – see note above on sections
Referencing – https://lo.unisa.edu.au/course/view.php?id=3839
Language and writing – http://resource.unisa.edu.au/course/view.php?id=3813&topic=10