The growing prevalence of clean energy raises the question of possible associated externalities. This article studies the effects of nuclear power plant development (and, as a result, the increased amount of water in the atmosphere from evaporative cooling systems) on nearby crop yields and finds that an average nuclear power plant increases local soybean yields by 2 and corn yields by 1 percent. Considering the low elasticity of demand for these crops, the yield increases translate to annual net benefits of $229 million (2020 US dollars) – $317 million in losses to farmers and $546 million in benefits to consumers.

The European Union provides firm support to the maritime sector to reach the policy objectives in the Common Fisheries Policy. This paper analyzes to what extent the investment support to aquaculture and fish processing firms in Sweden increases firm investment activity. By doing so, the paper also quantifies the amount of investments that would have been undertaken also without support (deadweight losses, DWL). The results show that the support increases investment in aquaculture with a factor of 0.65, thus with a DWL of 35%. The corresponding number for fish processing is a DWL of 77%.

We explore the economic merits of on-farm water storage with tailwater recovery systems to reduce aquifer depletion in a region with expanding irrigated acreage and substantial off-season precipitation. Gains are substantial on a broad scale and long planning horizon, including more than $4 billion in producer surplus, 5 million acre-feet of conserved groundwater, and land capitalization of $24 per acre. Sensitivity analyses provide insights with respect to the impact of discount rates, rainfed returns, return flows, and aquifer recharge rates. Results can inform stakeholders about the optimal allocation of funds directed at agricultural practice adoption and agricultural water investments.

Preconditioning cattle, a management practice of preparing cattle for feedlots as well as following a vaccination protocol for common diseases, has been shown to add value to cattle by reducing disease incidence and severity, yet it is not universally adopted. We estimated the benefits to a beef system of preconditioning weaned calves versus not preconditioning under stochastic returns. Purchasing preconditioned calves makes economic sense, but market efficiency requires complete information of the health status of the cattle, feedlot performance, along with the right market mechanisms, which may not be available in all markets.

New production from public and exclusive varieties released by the small grains breeding program at Virginia Tech generated cumulative discounted benefits of $41 million from 2000 to 2018. Fitted yields from field trials were combined with acreage estimates to generate weighted average yields based on adoption of new varieties. Benefits were estimated as the value of additional production from the release and adoption of improved varieties. Public varieties were responsible for most program benefits. The program was found to have a significant impact in Virginia and out-of-state, with much of these benefits due to public-private collaboration.

The feeder cattle futures contract has been criticized in recent years as not providing an effective hedging instrument. Following historically volatile cattle markets in 2014–2015, feeder cattle basis risk escalated, fueling futures contract concerns. This study assesses these concerns, utilizing weekly auction data from 32 feeder cattle markets from 1992 to 2021. Examined for the first known time, feeder cattle market variation had a statistically and economically significant influence on basis risk. Basis variation differed across regions and marketing periods. Feeder cattle basis risk was historically high in 2014–2015 but declined to levels similar to 2011 by 2018.

We examine the impact of the rapidly expanding mobile banking service “mobile money” on rural households’ decision to adopt modern agricultural inputs and its resultant effect on agricultural income using plot, household, and community-level panel data from rural Uganda. The main findings indicate that mobile money adoption increases per capita farm income by 13%. Pathway analyses show that mobile money adoption increases the likelihood of using chemical fertilizer on maize plots by 11 percentage points. Mobile money adoption increases the likelihood of high-yielding maize seeds adoption on maize plots by 8.2 percentage points. In the Ugandan context of rapid decline in soil fertility and very low adoption of fertilizer and modern seeds, mobile money provides an avenue to finance agricultural intensification.

This article evaluates Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Revenue Protection (RP) used in conjunction as an optimal risk management strategy for representative producers in the Corn Belt and Mississippi Delta. Using a simulation procedure to produce representative farm revenues, we find it is optimal under expected utility for producers to enroll in RP, despite having RP through ARC. Results are robust across alternative sampling methods and regions. These findings imply that ARC is better suited as a complementary program, and that it is optimal for a producer to enroll in higher coverage levels than we currently observe.

Data from 1,422 feeder cattle teleauction lots were used to assess the impacts on profitability of the Virginia quality assured (VQA) feeder cattle program. The analysis finds higher profits for VQA cattle due to their faster turnover and lower feed costs; however, certification does not have a significant effect on price received by producers. The analysis further suggests that the cost associated with production under VQA should be considered in addition to price effects studied in previous literature.

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.

Many cattle producers and producer organizations are concerned that the live cattle negotiated market has become too thin. The percentage of live cattle procured through direct negotiations has declined below 20%, while the percentage procured through formulas has increased to more than 60%. Most formulas are based on directly negotiated cattle prices. Proposed legislation mandating that a larger percentage of live cattle be procured through negotiations represents a market intervention. We show that live cattle futures prices are good proxies for negotiated cash prices, while being less restrictive for meeting proposed cash cattle procurement percentage requirements.

We investigate differences in profitability of three Aberdeen-influenced breeds, Angus, Red Angus, and American Aberdeen. Using data from North Dakota, we measure differences in birth weights, calving intervals, weaning weights, cow weights, and profitability. Weaning weights differ between breeds, setting up a trade-off between lower feed costs for smaller cows and higher revenue for larger cows. American Aberdeen-influenced cows bred to Red Angus bulls have $1–$6 per acre higher returns than Angus or Red Angus-influenced cows. Aberdeen sires have the lowest returning calves.

The study applies parametric and nonparametric estimation methods to determine hedonic prices of rice quality attributes, and a partial equilibrium model to determine the payoff to investing in quality improvement in five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Results indicate that consumers are willing to pay price premiums for head rice, slender grains, peak viscosity, parboiled rice, and rice sold in urban markets. However, they strongly discount amylose content, rice with impurities and imported rice. Investing in quality improvement through amylose content reduction leads to net welfare gains with a benefit-cost ratio of 47.86 and internal rate of return of 90%.

We contribute to the inverse farm size-productivity puzzle (IR) literature by examining the relationship using a unique data set from southern Ghana that covers farms between 5 and 70 ha. The study uses an instrumental variable (IV) for land size to mitigate some effects of measurement error in land size. The inverse relationship between farm size and farm productivity is upheld when ordinary least squares estimators (OLS) are applied but becomes insignificant although still negative in the IV estimation. The results show that measurement error in land size attenuates the IR. While some studies found the IR to flatten and then become positive, this study finds that in Ghana, the IR only flattens.

This paper evaluates the impact of an increase in the federal or state minimum wage on the egg industry, where labor is a key input. This analysis uses an for Iowa, a key egg-producing state. When spread across the industry, the total negative effects of the increased minimum wage do not appear to be economically significant. This is due largely to the Iowa egg industry’s current equilibrium wage of $13.50 an hour. Thus, a $15.00 minimum wage adds only $1.50; however, to stay competitive, egg industry employers likely would increase their wage above $15.00. Despite these seemingly small effects, egg producers may struggle in the short run to respond to immediate labor expenses should Iowa or the United States not phase in its minimum wage over the course of several years.

We estimate a hedonic pricing model to determine producers’ value for bull expected progeny differences (EPDs), genomic-enhanced EPDs, and phenotypic traits. Birth weight EPD, ribeye area EPD, sale weight, age, frame score, and other factors had a statistically significant impact on bull prices. GE-EPDs were not associated with a change in the bull sales prices expect for weaned calf value and birth weight EPDs. Including weaned calf value and GE-EPDs in a bull hedonic pricing model provides a unique contribution. The results from this work will inform educational programming for bull purchasers on using new economic selection indices and GE-EPDs.

This study builds upon the existing literature on the Working curve and backwardation to explore the impact of storage regimes on the volatility measures of substitute agricultural commodity markets. We investigate the impact of commodity fundamentals (storage regime and stocks-to-use ratio), commodity-specific financial variables (options hedging pressure-long and -short), world economic activity, market-wide volatility index, seasonality, and time-to-maturity on nearby and deferred implied volatility (IV) series of selected commodity pairs of corn-soybean and winter wheat-spring wheat. Our work confirms that, in some cases, grain and oilseed IV derived from options premia respond to shocks in commodity (and substitute commodity) fundamentals which are in line with the behaviour of volatility in futures markets. Own-storage regime effects on price variability are stronger in the selected markets, while spillover effects from substitute commodity storage regimes show a modest impact on volatilities. We also find some evidence for the stocks-to-use ratio of both corn and soybean to impact both their own and each other’s IV, while options hedging pressure has some impact only on wheat IVs.

Academics worry grade inflation lowers standards; whereas, employers are concerned grades may not distinguish students’ abilities. These concerns are dismissed if higher grades reflect improved academic achievement and not inflation. Potential grade inflation is examined using data from 17,696 classes between 1985 and 2019 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University. Evidence of systemic grade increase is found after controlling for institution, instructor, and student characteristics. Grade increases are partially explained by recruiting better and more female students. Grade inflation, however, may be associated with increased hiring of graduate students and other instructors.