Agricultural and applied Economics

Extremely dry conditions in the Great Plains during Spring and Summer of 1976 have greatly increased the awareness of rural residents and decision-makers of the need for increasing rural fire protection. In addition, increasing investments in farm machinery, buildings, crops and livestock, and urban sprawl have increased the need for improved rural fire protection. Oklahoma farmers have six billion dollars invested in farm property and annually produce crops and livestock worth about 1.9 billion dollars. More than one-third of the state's population lives in rural areas. These large agricultural investments, movements of urban people to small acreages and extremely dry conditions have induced rural residents to pressure county and community officials to improve fire protection. The usual procedure is to approach county commissioners and ask them for funds. Commissioners are acutely aware of the problem, but have several crucial needs competing for limited funds. If they decide t...

The Florida citrus industry is in the unique position of being both importer and exporter of frozen concentrated orange juice. On one hand, exports provide the industry with an additional outlet for concentrate. On the other, imports being brought into the U.S. market creates considerable controversy as to whether this imported juice is economically desirable for the industry.Two basic issues have evolved from these international trading activities. First, Florida exports concentrate on both Canadian and European markets. The former differs little from the domestic market. In contrast, the European market is expected to differ substantially from the U.S. market. Florida faces a number of competing suppliers in Europe. Often, the price of foreign concentrate exported to Europe is priced lower than Florida's export price. Recognizing that competition exists in the European market, how then should Florida price its product relative to the world price? Similarly, should the Florida ...

The forecasting of the price of agricultural as well as livestock and poultry products is important to the decision making of farmers in what to produce in order to maximize their time and profit. Comprising around 70% of the overall pig production in a market where pork is highly regarded as valuable meat, backyard farmers play an important role in the Philippine society. The study makes use of the state of the art TRAMO software in order to accurately forecast future backyard farm gate prices for pigs bred for slaughtering.

Integrated Farm Financial Statements (IFFS) software was developed as an M.S. thesis project in the mid-1980s and was immediately put to use as a tool for business planning in one-on-one work with Oklahoma producers through the Intensive Financial Management and Planning Support project. An updated IFFS continues to be used with producers to project financial statements for 1–3 years. Strengths and weaknesses in the software and extension program are noted, along with components that might serve as a model for other programs. Links with research are discussed, as are prospects for future farm financial management programs.

Is entrepreneurship an innate ability or an acquired skill? Can entrepreneurial acumen be achieved and enhanced through education and training, or are certain people “born” to be entrepreneurs or to act entrepreneurially? Economists and management theorists give widely divergent answers to these questions. This paper reviews the major approaches to teaching entrepreneurship, primarily at the undergraduate level, and relates them to economic theories of entrepreneurship. Surprisingly, we find little connection between the leading approaches to entrepreneurship education and economists' understanding of the entrepreneurial function. We assess likely explanations for the lack of contact between these two groups of scholars and suggest possible improvements.

The interconnections of agriculture and energy markets have increased through the rise in the new biofuel agribusinesses and the oil-ethanol-corn linkages. The question is whether these linkages have a causal structure by which oil prices affect commodity prices and through these links, instability is transferred from energy markets to already volatile agricultural markets. In this article, we present empirical results using contemporary time-series analysis and Granger causality supplemented by a directed graph theory modeling approach to identify the links and plausible contemporaneous causal structures among energy and commodity variables. The results show that although there is a strong correlation among oil and commodity prices, the evidence for a causal link from oil to commodity prices is mixed.

With the industrialization that has been occurring in the agricultural sector, various agricultural commodity interests are increasingly recognizing the need for an organization for marketing. Once formed, commodity organizations commonly wish to develop markets for their product but likely lack the expertise to evaluate alternatives open to their organization for market development. In addition, no comprehensive statement of the market development concept has appeared in the literature. This situation lends impetus to the need for a definition and description of market development along with the alternatives which may exist for various marketing institutions.

An economically efficient allocation of resources maximizes consumer and producer surpluses. It can be shown that under perfectly competitive conditions, an efficient allocation of resources will evolve. It may be the global welfare optimum, but for a given set of conditions, consumer and producer surpluses can be maximized.

Tall fescue toxicosis adversely affects calving rate and weight gains reducing returns to cow-calf producers in the south–central United States. This grazing study estimated animal and economic performance implications of endophyte-infected fescue and calving season. Establishing novel endophyte-infected tall fescue on 25% of pasture acres resulted in im-proved calving rates (87% vs. 70%), weaning weights (532 lbs vs. 513 lbs), and partial returns per acre ($257 vs. $217). Additionally, fall-calving cows had higher calving rates (91% vs. 67%), weaning weights (550 lbs vs. 496 lbs), and partial returns per acre ($269 vs. $199) than spring calving cows. Tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum [Schreb.] Darbysh) is a common cool-season grass grown in temperate climates and is one of the most abundant forage crops in the United States with over 8.5 million cattle grazing tall fescue pas-tures (Hoveland, 1993). Tall fescue is desirable to cow-calf producers as a result of ease of es-tablishment...

This article examines the impacts of monetary policy on agricultural prices in four Asian economies using time series analysis and graph theory. The estimations clearly show that agricultural prices overshoot their long-run equilibrium values for Korea, Philippines, and Thailand, and the overshooting for agricultural prices is larger than for manufactured prices. Impulse-response functions and variance-decomposition analysis based on directed graphs and causal structures highlight the complex interplay among the variables in the model and how those relationships differ by country. Money supply changes clearly affect real variables and relative prices for all countries either through overshooting or non-neutrality of money.

This paper investigates the motivations for local right-to-farm protection ordinances by estimating a logit model relating the adoption of these ordinances to various political, economic and demographic factors previously found to affect the likelihood of passage of farmland preservation policies. Results suggest that the probability of adopting right-to-farm policies increases with the size and political clout of the farm public and with incentives to promote right-to-farm. Adoption is not enhanced by environmental concerns, nor by factors known to encourage adoption of farmland preservation policies. These findings raise serious concerns about the long-run viability of protections afforded agriculture in urbanizing areas.

Agricultural economics and agribusiness (AEAB) programs offer their graduates unique exposure to agricultural markets, policy, and production systems, which differentiates them from business programs. Despite the advantages associated with AEAB degrees, a significant challenge universities and AEAB graduates face is a general lack of recognition of what agricultural economics is and what an agricultural economist does. Using data collected from U.S. 1862 and 1890 land grant universities, we stress the importance of designing effective AEAB curricula based on enrollment trends, the desired attributes of graduates, and the current structure of AEAB undergraduate programs.

Public elementary and secondary education represent the largest single expenditure by units of state and local governments. Nearly 30 percent of all tax dollars raised at the state and local level is spent for funding public elementary and secondary schools. The magnitude of expenditures for public education relative to other public goods makes questions concerning resource allocation for this service extremely important. It is not surprising that a great deal of attention has been directed toward determining if the educational process can be made more efficient.Politicians, school administrators and other decision-makers who deal with school finance problems in rural and urban areas face a key policy question concerning the educational production process: “Does the spending of additional tax dollars in local public schools necessarily insure increased scholastic achievement for all students?”

We used choice experiment data collected from 542 farmers in Nigeria to assess smallholders’ preferences for shifting to Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). Results suggest that the higher the size of the incentive, the more the likelihood of farmers’ willingness to invest in CSA schemes. Similarly, the farmers were in favor of community development associations and non-governmental organizations-managed schemes over other project managements and also prefer government-based institutions as opposed to the private sector. Willingness to accept results suggest that an average farmer is willing to accept $540/ha/year and $386/ha/year to embrace good agricultural practices (GAPs) with and without manure application.

A sequential decision-making model was developed, and data from farm-raised catfish production were used to demonstrate its use. Outcomes of sequences of decisions which satisfied chance constraints on ending cash balances were traced through a specified time period. Discrete choice variables were specified due to the fixed nature of pond facilities. Recourse actions specified were sale of production in excess of endogenously determined transfer levels or purchase of inputs to supplement needs of the next production stage. Production activities cannot be changed during the planning period. Only yield variability was considered due to its impact on relative competitiveness among growth stages. Deviations were calculated from endogenously determined target levels based on goal and probability limits.

... 2002), while in 2000, a total of $2.7 billion was paid by pharmaceutical ... profits, and the consumer surplus generated from the biopharming application un-der each strategy. ... functions derived from information on prices, quantities, and elasticities.12 Under these assumptions the ...

Technology adoption by smallholder farmers is a key strategy to improve agricultural sustainability and productivity in developing countries. This study therefore investigated the factors influencing adoption of agricultural mechanisation and improved varieties by rice farmers in northern Ghana. A bivariate probit model was used to analyse the determinants of farmers’ joint adoption decisions. The results indicated that the age and gender of the household head, the degree of specialisation in production, household size, and location of the farm were significantly associated with farmers’ joint adoption decision. Furthermore, farm size, extension visits, herd ownership and the production system were significant factors in farm mechanisation adoption but not the adoption of improved rice varieties. The study concludes that several individual and household characteristics interplay to influence smallholders’ joint adoption decisions. Hence, efforts to improve rice production in Ghana a...

This study focuses on the longstanding impoverishment of the rural South and three of its subregions-Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and the Black Belt. The poor quality of life in rural Appalachia and along the Mississippi Delta has been publically acknowledged by programs and commissions for improving conditions. However, the more comprehensive Black Belt subregion that links parts of Southern Appalachia and the Southern Delta has not received such regional policy attention. While the South as a whole is more rural and impoverished than other U.S. regions, this is largely due to the poor conditions in the Black Belt. In addition to region and rurality, a third feature of the pattern is race. It is in the Black Belt that the South's poor socioeconomic conditions are most concentrated. Policy and program attention are needed for regional solutions that take rurality and race into account along with demographic and other subregional characteristics.

This study investigates the relationship between cash and futures prices of soybeans and soybean meal from 1992 to 2013. Error correction models are estimated for the prices of both commodities. An exogenous measure of price variability is included in both models to determine if variability increases the speed with which cash and futures prices return to their long-run equilibrium relationship. This is used to measure the impact of price variability on short-run market efficiency and the price discovery process. The findings indicate that the level of price variability influences market adjustment rates and the price discovery process.

An extensive background overview on the use of agricultural residues (wastes) for production of paper, board, binderless board, energy, different types of fuels by pyrolysis (solid, liquid and gaseous fuel), many petrochemicals substitutes, charcoal (active carbon), dissolving pulps and rayon. It includes both scientific and industrial data, case studies, current status, sustainability of paper and sugar industries, green nanotechnology, and future prospects.

LL601 is a genetically modified rice variety and unapproved for commercial use. Its presence was found in commercial shipments of US rice in 2006. This article explores its impact on prices and volume marketed for both the United States and Thailand, the major ...

Efforts to stabilize employment and output in the agricultural sector of Yugoslavia through monetization contributed to inflationary pressures. Granger causality tests suggest that increases in the rate of growth in the supply of money to subsidize state-owned agribusinesses were insufficient to maintain purchases of wheat and corn, but did cause purchases of cattle and swine. This result may be explained by producers having more flexibility in grain marketing (i.e., storage options and private buyers) and the perishability issues related to livestock marketing. The policy to maintain employment through monetization is shown to have been ineffective.

Laboratory experimental methods are used to investigate the impacts of supply and/or demand risks on prices, quantities traded, and earnings within forward and spot market institutions. Random demand and/or supply shifts can be as much as 25 percent of the expected equilibrium outcome. Nevertheless, results suggest that the spot or forward trading institution itself has a greater influence on market outcomes than the presence of risk within the trading institution. Sellers tend to have relatively higher earnings in a spot market than buyers, regardless of the risk. Total surplus, however, generally is greater in a forward market.