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Full-Text Articles in Agribusiness

Irrigation-As-A-Service For Smallholder Farmers, Ishani Lal May 2023

Irrigation-As-A-Service For Smallholder Farmers, Ishani Lal

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Irrigation is a crucial management practice that can help increase food security among smallholders globally while mitigating climate change impacts. High-efficiency irrigation technologies such as drip kits and sprinkler systems are relatively expensive and smallholder farmers cannot afford them to buffer crop yields against low precipitation. In many developing countries, farmers participate in robust informal markets for renting and sharing of irrigation equipment. Such services may be operated by farmers or via a third party such as irrigation start-ups, water user associations, non-governmental organizations, or even government agencies. These services are referred to collectively as Irrigation-as-a-Service (IaaS).

The objective of …


What Is The Value Of Ethanol To Nebraska Corn Producers?, Austin Harthoorn Aug 2022

What Is The Value Of Ethanol To Nebraska Corn Producers?, Austin Harthoorn

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this thesis, we examine the role of local ethanol plants on net price received by Nebraskan corn growers, with net price comprised of the grain buyer’s bid onsite less the transportation cost incurred through delivery. As each farm operation is uniquely located between different sets of grain buyers, an ethanol plant impacts each grower’s net price to a different degree, depending on location. Exploring this, we use grain bid and transportation cost data based on actual ethanol plants, grain elevators, and sample farm locations in Nebraska, estimating the diversely located corn grower’s net prices received from surrounding grain buyers. …


Causal Forest Approach For Site-Specific Input Management Via On-Farm Precision Experimentation, Shunkei Kakimoto Aug 2022

Causal Forest Approach For Site-Specific Input Management Via On-Farm Precision Experimentation, Shunkei Kakimoto

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Estimating site-specific crop yield response to changes to input (e.g., seed, fertilizer) management is a critical step in making economically optimal site-specific input management recommendations. Past studies have attempted to estimate yield response functions using various Machine Learning (ML) methods, including the Random Forest (RF), Boosted Random Forest (BRF), and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) methods. This study proposes use of the Causal Forest (CF) model, which is one of the emerging ML methods that comprise “Causal Machine Learning.” Unlike previous yield-prediction-oriented ML methods, CF focuses strictly on estimating heterogeneous treatment effects (changes in yields that result from changes in input …


Essays On The Designs And Benefits Of Land Conservation Programs, Badri Khanal Aug 2021

Essays On The Designs And Benefits Of Land Conservation Programs, Badri Khanal

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation analyzes the policy designs and economic benefits of a land conservation practice called prairie strips. The first chapter investigates the impact of policy designs on individual household preferences. The study measures the value that Iowa residents place on the ecosystem services of prairie strips and determines if that value changes under different policy designs. The policy design treatment varies in who runs the program and who has enrollment priority. The willingness to pay (WTP) for ecosystem services is estimated using stated preferences from a choice experiment. Results indicate significant public support for expanding and funding the prairie strips …


Impacts Of Crop Insurance And Intra-Season Hedging On Long-Run Net Income Risk, Kara Zimmerman Aug 2021

Impacts Of Crop Insurance And Intra-Season Hedging On Long-Run Net Income Risk, Kara Zimmerman

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Each year producers must make risk management decisions early in the growing season when many variables are unknown. In this thesis we create an empirical model utilizing thirty years (1989-2018) of historical yield, cost, and daily price series data, to determine the optimal risk management strategy of crop insurance and an intra-season marketing plan that will both minimize net income risk and maximize average net income. The empirical model is taken a step further to include an out-of-sample year in order to test the robustness of empirical results to financially devastating events that have never been seen. We test the …


Economically Optimal Nitrogen Side-Dressing Based On Vegetation Indices From Satellite Images Through On-Farm Experiments, Qianqian Du Jul 2021

Economically Optimal Nitrogen Side-Dressing Based On Vegetation Indices From Satellite Images Through On-Farm Experiments, Qianqian Du

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Optimal N fertilizer rates for corn (Zea mays L.) vary substantially within and among fields, and by corn growth stages. Improving N side-dressing management can improve fertilizer use efficiency, farmers’ profitability, and the sustainability of crop production. The objective of this study is to introduce a framework along with a methodology that can find the site-specific economically optimal N rates (EONRs) within one field for a particular growing season. An on-farm experiment was conducted in the 2019 corn growing season. A base N rate was applied uniformly on the field. NDRE images from the Sentinel-2 satellite were observed during …