The ability of a farmer or group of farmers in a region to produce a specific product profitably depends on the structure of costs of production and marketing and demands of all competing crops. The final decision to grow a particular product is made on the basis of its profitability relative to profitabilities of other alternatives. Relative profitability of a product changes as technological innovations affect yields, resource requirements and production efficiency. Factors affecting demand for resource inputs and products cause changes in profitabilities. Institutional factors can also necessitate adjustments in farm plans by influencing price and/or production of specific products and thereby affecting the profitability of one product relative to other product alternatives.

We developed a trade model under imperfect competition to analyze the market power of U.S. and Chinese apple producers in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market and their domestic markets and the elimination of ASEAN tariffs on U.S. and Chinese apples. We also formulated welfare functions for the United States, China, and ASEAN. Comparative static results are derived to analyze the effect of tariff changes on exports, domestic sales, and welfare. Based on the theoretical model, we derived an econometric specification and used the new empirical industrial organization literature to estimate the market power of U.S. and Chinese apple producers. The econometric model is simulated to quantify the effect of tariff removal on exports and domestic sales.

An ordered probit model is used to investigate the factors that determine post-choice satisfaction of southeastern U.S. dairy farmers with their milk handlers. The impact on farmer satisfaction of milk handler attributes, farm/farmer characteristics, and farm location is tested. Results support the hypothesis that mailbox price and the quality of service provided by milk handlers have a positive effect on satisfaction levels. Bargaining-operating cooperatives are negatively associated with farmer satisfaction when contrasted against independently owned milk handlers and bargaining-only cooperatives. Choice and the ability to switch milk handlers are also important determinants of farmer satisfaction.

A risk programming model was developed to evaluate the tradeoffs between risk and expected returns in beef-forage production systems. The specification represents nutrient and intake considerations when allocating forage among cattle enterprises; it also incorporates the various sources of risk facing livestock producers. Efficient ranch organizations were derived for a representative eastern Oklahoma ranch using MOTAD and Target-MOTAD formulations. Diversification of forage enterprises, introduction of cow-calf enterprises, and retained ownership of weaned calves were identified as important responses to reductions in acceptable levels of risk. Results also indicated efficient ranch plans to be sensitive to the risk criteria and producer's willingness to accept risk.

The objective of this study was to determine whether structural change in the demand for butter, margarine, and salad and cooking oils occurred between 1967 and 1986. A nonparametric method, which does not require that a functional form be imposed on the data, was used to test for violations from stable, well-behaved preferences. Violations were found, but they were small in magnitude. Therefore, the results failed to show strong evidence that consumption patterns for butter, margarine, and oils were inconsistent with stable preferences.

Restrictions on the hyperbolic trigonometric (HT) transformation are imposed to guarantee that a probability density function is obtained from maximum likelihood estimation. Performance of the restricted HT transformation using data generated from normal, beta, gamma, logistic, log-normal, Pareto, Weibull, order statistic, and bimodal populations is investigated via sampling experiments. Results suggest that the restricted HT transformation is sufficiently flexible to compete with the actual population distributions in most cases. Application of the restricted HT transformation is illustrated by characterizing uncertain net income per acre for community-supported agriculture farms in the northeastern United States.

Rice is a staple crop in Nigeria. Even with a push to increase domestic production, little is known about the functionality of Nigeria’s open bag markets and the preferences of consumers for specific rice attributes. Our study uses a hedonic price model to identify quality attribute preferences of consumers and potential market failures. Our results indicate that Nigerian consumers prefer rice with homogenous long slender kernels and a low presence of broken rice and are indifferent to chalkiness. The findings are useful as they can inform future strategies for rice breeders, domestic policy makers, and rice exporters.

United States (US) sugar policy buffers domestic sugar producers against subsidized and dumped world market sugar resulting in generally higher US sugar prices compared to world prices. A fixed-effects panel regression is used to estimate factors associated with US sugar-containing-product (SCP) retail prices. SCPs are defined by sucrose being a primary ingredient. Explanatory variables in the regression were US sugar prices, SCP characteristics, firm size, firm past financial performance, and macroeconomic variables. Macroeconomic variables, firm past financial performance, and SCP weight were statistically significant in explaining SCP prices. Increases in US sugar prices were not associated with higher SCP prices.

We examine the relationship of product characteristics of ready-to-eat breakfast cereal and targeted television advertising to specific consumer segments. We compile a unique data set that includes brand-packaging characteristics, including on-box games, nutrition information, and cobranding. We find that the relationship of television advertising and a cereal's brand-packaging characteristics varies by target audience. Our results provide insight into understanding how manufacturers strategically utilize branding, packaging, and television advertising. This can help industry and policy makers develop food product advertising policy. This analysis extends to other product markets where extensive product differentiation and promotion are present as well.

We use experimental methods to investigate subsidy incidence, the transfer of subsidy payments from intended recipients to other economic agents, in privately negotiated spot markets. Our results show that market outcomes in treatments with a subsidy given to either buyers or sellers are significantly different from both a no-subsidy treatment and the competitive prediction of a 50% subsidy incidence. The disparity in incidence across treatments relative to predicted levels suggests that incidence equivalence does not hold in this market setting. Moreover, we find no statistical difference in market outcomes when benefits are framed as a “subsidy” versus a schedule shift.

We study the effects of food safety awareness on consumers’ milk purchasing behavior in Nepal. We conducted consumer survey and employed an instrumental variable regression. We find education, income, and social network to influence food safety consciousness (FSC). Our results indicate the positive impact of FSC on weekly milk expenditure and probability of purchasing milk from milk cooperatives. Any policy that helps to improve the FSC levels will likely increase the purchase of safe milk from the modern market outlet, and lack of such awareness raising policies has prevented the market for safe food from evolving and expanding.

The relative importance of key state-level outcomes upon U.S. national corn and soybean production was examined using correlated component regression, a recently developed regression technique for application to multicollinear and sparse data sets. Standardized coefficients were used to rank the states’ relative importance. A Herfindahl-Hirschman Index was used to measure the degree of concentration among the top ranked states. The empirical analysis looked at two time periods: a pre-Genetic Modification (1975–1995) and a post-Genetic Modification (1996–2017) period. The results indicate that U.S. corn production is becoming less geographically concentrated in terms of state-level importance while the opposite holds true for soybean production.

Recent egg price quotes are evaluated in a vector autoregression. The results indicate that empirical relationships observed over the period 1975-1976 differ from those observed over the period 1979-1982.

The agricultural industry, like other industries, has become increasingly dependent upon energy resources such as electricity, fossil fuels, chemicals and fertilizers, largely due to relatively low energy prices. In the middle 1970s, however, energy prices rose sharply as a result of continuously rightward shifting energy demands and leftward shifting energy supplies due to dwindling domestic reserves and oil price increases by OPEC nations. Although the rapidly rising energy prices may have been viewed initially as a temporary phenomenon, most now agree that we are in an era of high energy prices. Carter and Youde [2] have discussed some impacts of the changing energy situation on U.S. agriculture.

This article develops a conceptual framework for analyzing the role of state-level policies towards the dairy sector in the presence of farmland amenity benefits, and applies it to Connecticut. Milk supply, demand and amenity benefit functions are estimated, and three exogenously determined milk prices are considered. The empirical findings show, under each price scenario, the extent to which land is underallocated to the dairy sector if amenity benefits are ignored. Analysis of policy options reveals that a partial production cost subsidy represents the least-cost alternative for attaining the socially optimal solution for the region.

The objective of most investors in stocks or other assets is to maximize the expected returns in a given risk class; in other words, to minimize risk for a given level of expected returns. Although “risk” may connote the chance of injury or loss, the term is not defined so narrowly in this article. Rather, it is used to reflect volatility in stock or other assets' rates of return and should not be confused with risk and uncertainty in the production process. Risk, as approached herein, equals the variance of historical rates of return about the average rate of return.

The Texas Department of Agriculture launched the GO TEXAN marketing promotion program in 1999 to support Texas agricultural and food production. The underlying assumption is that if successful, the program would support directly or indirectly the demand for Texas agricultural production and the well-being of the state's rural population. This research analyzes responses to an official 2008 survey sent to the GO TEXAN program beneficiaries. Overall, this study suggests that not all activities in the program have a clearly positive impact. Participation in trade shows, retail promotion and media events, and reverse trade missions seem to have a significant effect on sales increase as well as the use of the program logo on promotional items and web sites. The study also suggests that the relative impacts of event participation and uses of the program logo differ according to the group of member's belonging, particularly when comparing the “mostly rural” vs. “mostly urban” categories. Consequently, if a state's agricultural marketing program specifically attempts to reach producers from its “mainly rural” areas, an analysis may be needed to identify what specific types of promotion seem to generate the best results in those areas.

The economic impact of migrant farmworkers on an agriculture-dependent region is investigated. The direct effects of inflows of state and federal dollars for migrant services, and production of high-valued commodities are computed. Indirect and induced effects are modelled through the use of the IMPLAN input output model. Various alternatives to migrant labor are investigated, including production of less labor-intensive crops, acreage retirement, and contract H2A workers. Migrants are found to create substantial economic activity on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Pesticide use is regulated within a complex legal framework that includes the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; and other environmental laws. The framework includes risk-benefit rules for some decisions that permit full consideration of comparative performance, cost, and risks of a pesticide and its alternatives before decisions to permit or ban uses. The framework also includes risk-only standards, such as the Delaney Clause, that prohibit such comparisons and can have unintended and undesirable consequences by increasing health or environmental risks while increasing the cost of producing agricultural commodities.