農業生產所提供的產品相當多元,但是農場的收益只有來自出售農產物之所得;農業生產需要自然資源與環境的充份配合,所以政府在考量糧食安全與衛生下,常常限制這些自然資源的轉用或交易,使得資產所有者或使用受益者蒙受各種牽制,因此合理的農業收益應包括:出售市場財、提供非市場財及短期釋出(出租)其所使用的自然資源。 本文假設政府可運用農政預算推動農產品生產、農業環境勞務的提供及活潑自然資源的利用以造福全社會。根據模型分析,最有效率之預算分配應符合均等邊際原則,亦即使各項標的之加權邊際效益相等。此一決策模型顯示出預算分配之決策過程頗值得公開討論,以約束過去閉門造車之模式。從分析中可知農政單位過去強調生產功能,現在雖已有傾向準備為生態功能加權,但是充分利用農業資源也很重要,農政機關應加強建立農業環境與資源的暫時移用機制,並透過預算分配引介資源利用之管理協議,提高農場的農業資產收益,有助於農業取得永續發展的機會。
Agricultural production is an organic process under the support of natural resources and environment. Government sets up regulations for the use of agricultural resources in order to protect food safety and security. Agriculture thus provides many kinds of goods and services to the society, but farm income mainly comes from farm products sold in the market only. Therefore, it is reasonable to define that the benefits of agriculture include providing market goods and non-market goods and rentals from short-term use of agricultural resources for non-agricultural activities. This paper assumes that government can allocate agriculture budget to promote production of food, environmental services and efficient use of natural resources. A programming model is employed to justify the economic rule of the equal marginal principle and to correct the arbitrary decisions. Namely, over investment in agriculturally production activities should be switched not only to the protection of natural environment, but also to the efficient and beneficial use of agricultural resources. Agriculture should be encouraged by government budget to utilize management agreement to raise the farm income from efficient use of agricultural assets and to benefit the opportunity of sustainable development of agriculture.