Modelling production cost and financial return of forest reproduction materials in relation to nursery size

Forestry seedling production in the Philippines takes place in government, industrial, smallholder and community nurseries. While it might be expected that seedling production costs decrease as nursery size increases, surveys have revealed that nursery operators have little knowledge about their seedling production costs. To overcome this lack of information, financial models have been developed in the ACIAR seedling enhancement project for forestry nurseries of a range of sizes, for nurseries using durable infrastructure, producing seedlings of indigenous tree species, and following best management practices in seedling production. These reveal that the cost per seedling is high for small nurseries, but becomes relatively constant at about $0.35 US per seedling for annual production above about 25,000 seedlings a year. The need is identified for further research on nursery costs (particularly in relation to labour costs, source and type of germplasm), market demand for seedlings from nurseries accredited with adopting best management practice, and benefits of vertical and horizontal integration of forestry nurseries