The Importance of Lags in Determining the Parameters of a Planting Function for Forestry in Ireland

Due to food surpluses, agriculture in its present form is nowcoming to a crossroads and farming communities, throughout theEEC have been put under increasing pressure to diversify. Inline with this general trend towards diversification, the Forestand Wildlife Service has endeavoured to increase the acreageunder private afforestation in the Republic of Ireland. A knowledgeof the responsiveness of private plantation owners to changesin grant aid and the actual timescale involved in the reallocationof land towards forestry is therefore essential. A plantingfunction for private afforestation projects in Ireland, basedon distributed lag structures, attempts to provide the relevantinformation. The optimal model specification is log linear inform and includes a system of distributed lag structures. Themajor finding of the study is that forestry uptake in Irelandis dependent upon grant aid with the resultant effect on afforestationdistributed over an eight year period.