Cranberry products are perceived as healthy due to their high antioxidant content yet adding sugars to increase their palatability deters consumption. Plant breeding technologies such as gene editing, specifically the clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR), offer a plausible alternative to develop cranberries with desired traits (e.g., lower acidity and increased sweetness). We estimated consumers’ willingness to pay for sugar content, CRISPR, and cranberry flavor intensity for two cranberry products under different health-related information treatments. Respondents stated a discount for regular sugar content favoring reduced sugar products, for CRISPR compared to conventional breeding, and for weak/bland compared to full/intense cranberry flavor. Compensated valuation analysis of products with different attribute levels indicates that consumers were willing to pay a premium for cranberry products with reduced sugar content, CRISPR-bred, and full/intense cranberry flavor relative to products with regular sugar content, conventionally bred, and weak/bland flavor. Information treatments highlighting cranberries’ health benefits and recommendations to limit sugar intake increased consumers’ discounts for regular sugar content, surpassing the discount for CRISPR. This research underscores the importance of the conditions under which breeding technologies might gain public acceptance. This information will benefit the scientific community and industry seeking to use CRISPR to develop improved cranberry cultivars.

This study formally links the literature on R&D-driven productivity growth to studies which examine GHG emission benefits from increased farm productivity growth. Using a global agricultural model and estimates from the literature, this study examines the impact of greater US public agricultural R&D spending over 2025−2035. The results show that roughly doubling public R&D investments in US agriculture could provide greater economic gains relative to its costs over the period 2017−2050. The GHG mitigation co-benefits from these investments also can be enhanced by combining R&D policies with strategies aimed at directly reducing farm inputs.

This paper conducts a benefit–cost analysis of expanding agricultural research and development (R&D) in the Global South. We extend a recent modeling exercise that used IFPRI’s IMPACT model to estimate the investments required to reduce the global prevalence of hunger below 5%. After 35 years, the increased funding is estimated to increase agricultural output by 10%, reduce the prevalence of hunger by 35%, reduce food prices by 16%, and increase per capita incomes by 4% relative to a counterfactual where funding continues to rise on historical trends. Using an 8% discount rate, the net present value of the costs of agricultural R&D are estimated at $61 billion for the next 35 years, while the net present benefits in terms of net economic surplus (the sum of consumer and producer surplus) are estimated at $2.1 trillion. The central estimate of the benefit–cost ratio (BCR) is 33, consistent with previous research documenting high average returns to agricultural research and development. The central BCR reported in this study places the intervention at the 91st percentile of all previous Copenhagen Consensus BCRs in agriculture, and 87th percentile for all BCRs regardless of sector. Agricultural R&D is likely one of the best uses of resources for the remainder of the Sustainable Development Goals and decades beyond.

We develop and analyze an unexplored mechanism to reduce biorefinery supply chain costs when the feedstock is a perennial crop: adjusting the age structure, and hence yield, of the perennial feedstock. The non-monotonicity of the age-yield function introduces a non-convexity to the cost minimization problem. We show that, despite this, the problem has a solution and present analytic and numeric comparative statics, finding that larger refineries are most likely to benefit from optimizing age structure. The model is calibrated to the sugarcane industry in Brazil. The cost reductions from optimizing age, compared to the observed regional average age, are less than 1%.

We investigate the role of optimism bias in bull price expectations using incentivized lab-in-the-field experiments with Alabama and Tennessee cattle producers. We develop bull price prediction tasks and reward accurate predictions. We find that the EPD information provision prevents optimism bias from contaminating price expectations in the whole sample. However, we also document that, unlike buyers, sellers are prone to unrealistic optimistic expectations, and our results reveal that optimism bias can be moderated by the type of expected progeny difference information utilized, breed characteristics, and regional differences in cattle operations. We contribute to the literature by documenting the role of behavioral biases.

This study examines the impact of land tenure rights on the adoption of short- and long-term agricultural practices and the impact of these practices on the income and food insecurity for rural households in Burkina Faso. The bivariate probit model and propensity score matching are used to analyze data collected from 4,398 rural households. The results show that ownership of permanent land rights only increases the likelihood of adopting long-term agricultural practices. In addition, adoption of short-term practices increases household income and reduces food insecurity, while adoption of long-term practices only increases household income.

This study uses a marginal treatment effects approach and farm household rice survey data from Northern Ghana to examine the heterogeneous effects of agricultural technologies on household welfare. Results indicate significant heterogeneity in the gains from the adoption of improved rice technologies among farmers. We found significant evidence of a pattern of positive selection on unobserved gains from the adoption of agricultural technologies on rice yield and household dietary diversity scores (HDDS). Moreover, the policy-relevant treatment effects suggest that reducing the distance to sources of agricultural technologies increases rice yield and HDDS through technology adoption.

This study develops and uses a survey to gather information on demographics, production and management practices, and perceptions on using cover crops as a conservation practice from citrus growers and utilizes the double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method to measure their willingness to pay (WTP) for adopting cover crops in citrus production. The survey is conducted for citrus producers in Florida and Texas. The study finds that, on average, growers from Florida are willing to pay $509.48/acre per year for adopting cover crops. This is substantially less than the WTP for growers in Texas, who are willing to pay more than $1,000/acre per year for cover crops. The study analyzes the factors that have significant impacts on growers’ WTP for cover crops and discusses the heterogeneity in the grower perceptions on the benefits and drawbacks of using this conservation practice by state. Although using cover crops has not been a popular conservation practice in perennial fruit production systems, its potential to improve soil quality is particularly important for citrus production in Florida where soils are sandy and have low organic matter.

Agritourism and direct-to-consumer sales are increasingly used as diversification strategies to generate additional farm revenue streams. Yet despite their growing importance, the impacts, interactions, and adoption of these strategies remain poorly understood. Here we use univariate and bivariate local Moran’s I statistics to identify agritourism and direct-to-consumer sales hotspots in the United States and a Seemingly-Unrelated-Regression Spatial Durbin Model to examine the association between agritourism and direct farm sales to consumers. We find that agritourism and direct sales reinforce each other within the same county but not consistently across neighboring counties.

Planning for a low-carbon future in Australia will need to address simultaneously three aspects of sustainable development: centralisation/regional development, mobility and communication. After reviewing existing roadmaps for low-carbon growth by 2050, the article identifies the importance for Australia of an integrated and mutually reinforcing set of measures, based on a bold approach to urban and regional planning. Taking account of national geography, the approach is based on the decentralisation of energy production, use and storage, and on new uses of communication, transport and the location of food, water and mineral resources. Revitalised regional centres could be connected, through new energy and transport solutions, by a national transport arc and electrified highways. The use of infrastructure funding to support low-carbon regional development would avoid the ‘tragedy of the commons’, transcending incremental, cumulative approaches based on compensation and incentives for household, business and sectoral abatement efforts. It would generate long-term environmentally sustainable development.

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.

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.

Viruses and related graft-transmissible pathogens cause diseases that cost the grape industry billions of dollars annually if left uncontrolled. The National Clean Plant Network (NCPN), a USDA Farm Bill program, is an organization of clean plant centers that produce and maintain virus-tested foundation vine stocks and distribute propagation material derived thereof to nurseries and growers to minimize the introduction of viruses and virus-like diseases into the vineyard. Foundation Plant Services (FPS) is the major NCPN-grapes center. We examined the economic impacts of public investments in FPS from 2006 to 2019. By focusing on grapevine leafroll disease, our analyses revealed a benefit-cost ratio ranging from 22:1 to 96:1, with a 5% and a 20% disease infection rates in commercial vineyards, respectively. A welfare analysis was consistent with grape growers and nurseries capturing most (64–98%) of the benefits from adopting clean planting material compared with winemakers and other actors in the downstream wine supply chain system. This study provided new insights into the returns to public investments in a clean plant center and documented strong financial incentives for higher adoption of clean vines derived from virus-tested stocks, while justifying continued support of NCPN centers from public and private sectors.

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 measure the economic impact of varietal improvement and technological change in flue-cured tobacco across quantity (e.g., yield) and quality dimensions under a voluntary quality constraint. Since 1961, flue-cured tobacco breeders in the United States have been subject to the Minimum Standards Program that sets limits on acceptable quality characteristics for commercial tobacco varieties. We implement a Bayesian hierarchical model to measure the contribution of breeding efforts to changes in tobacco yields and quality between 1954 and 2017. The Bayesian model addresses limited data for varieties in the trials and allows easy generation of the necessary parameters of economic interest.

Small family farms account for 72% of the farms in the world. Most of these farms, in developing countries, face labor productivity gaps. One of the strategies to increase agricultural productivity focuses on implementing technical assistance programs. Using agriculture microdata, we estimate the marginal treatment effect of receiving technical assistance services. We find that technical assistance generates heterogeneous effects. On average, agricultural units receiving technical assistance increased their agricultural production by 50.4%. However, there is important heterogeneity of technical assistance’s effects across the production units’ unobserved and observed characteristics.

This paper examined organic fertilizer adoption and its effects on two household food security indicators and gender-based farm labor use among smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana. An endogenous switching regression analysis shows that observed and unobserved farmer background factors determine farmers’ decision to adopt organic fertilizer as well as the outcomes from adoption. On average, adoption is associated with an 11% increase in per capita food consumption and a 55% reduction in household food gap duration. Adoption is also related to an increased labor use by 5.9 (90%) of female worker days and 1.3 (9%) of male worker days per acre, placing nearly all (82%) of the increased labor burden on female farmhands. We recommend mitigation of factors that hinder farmers from adopting the input and provision of female-user-friendly labor-saving devices for organic fertilizer use tasks.

Bolivia has disseminated several improved technologies in the rice sector, but the average rice productivity in the country is far below the average trend in Latin America in recent years. Although the economic literature has highlighted the role of agricultural technology adoption in increasing agricultural productivity, gaps remain in understanding how rice growers are deciding to adopt and benefit from available improved rice technologies. Most previous adoption studies have evaluated the uptake of individual technologies without paying attention to the complementarities that alternative improved rice technologies may offer to farmers who face multiple marketing and production needs. This study uses data from a nationally representative sample of Bolivian rice growers to analyze farmers' joint decisions in adopting complementary agricultural technologies controlling for potential correlations across these decisions, as well as the extent of adoption of these practices. Evidence suggests that the decisions on multiple technology adoption are closely related, with common factors affecting both adoption and the extent of adoption. Furthermore, there is a need to better target resource-poor farmers, improve information-diffusion channels on agricultural practices, and better use existing farmers' organizations to enhance rice technology adoption.

Weather extremes which are accelerated by changing climate greatly decrease agricultural productivity, resulting in severe economic losses and losses of livelihood of the poorest marginal communities. The adoption of stress-tolerant rice varieties (STRVs) is recommended as a best technology fix for risk adaptation. Although STRVs provide better outcomes with no yield penalty, farmers' decisions to adopt new STRVs are influenced by a multitude of factors, most importantly information exposure. We used a sequential logit model to analyze the impact of information access and information quality on adoption decisions regarding STRVs in flood-risk areas. Over the years, we found that STRVs adoption has become scale neutral, but adopters have significantly higher access to information. The estimates showed that 48 per cent of the farmers having access to information decided to adopt STRVs. When information reaches 50 per cent of the rice farmers in flood-prone areas, the estimated additional annual income is US$235 million.

This study measures the effect of text message receipt on behavioral change by Ecuadorean blackberry farmers. We examine whether text messages affect knowledge about specific technologies or serve as reminders to farmers to employ practices as part of their crop management strategy. Drawing from well-known theories of behavioral change, we identify pathways relevant to technology adoption. We then describe results from a randomized experiment and measure the impact of the intervention through these pathways. Results suggest that in the blackberry context, timely text messages remind farmers about recommended practices and increase adoption. Effects on knowledge enhancement are not significant.