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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Technology Adoption And Abandonment In Precision Cotton Production, Jonathan C. Walton Dec 2007

Technology Adoption And Abandonment In Precision Cotton Production, Jonathan C. Walton

Masters Theses

The data intensive nature of precision farming necessitates the use of different technologies to collect, transmit, manipulate, and apply information. Understanding the economic factors associated with decisions regarding technology adoption and abandonment is essential to the continued growth and feasibility of precision farming. The development of precision agricultural technologies, as well as educational and promotional efforts concerning precision farming, can benefit from an understanding of the factors influencing adoption and abandonment of precision agricultural technology. The first part of the study examined farm and farmer characteristics influencing the adoption and subsequent abandonment of precision soil sampling in cotton production. The …


Assessing The Sustainability Of Agricultural Systems, Laura L. Kramar Aug 2007

Assessing The Sustainability Of Agricultural Systems, Laura L. Kramar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work constructs and tests a comparative technique that can be used to determine the ability of agricultural systems to meet multiple objectives of sustainability. Assessments are based on an agricultural system's ability to maintain five system stocks that represent environmental capital, social capital, human capital, physical capital, and financial capital. The capital stocks are measured as stock objectives, which are decomposed as indicators to calculate agricultural system scores. An examination of the complexity of agro-ecosystems and the multiple equilibria produced by balancing multiple objectives is used to explain the alternative criteria used in this comparative technique to evaluate agricultural …


An Investigation Of Post-Buyout Burley Tobacco Production And Trends In The Traditional Burley Regions Of Tennessee, North Carolina, And Virginia, Lakeya Jones Aug 2007

An Investigation Of Post-Buyout Burley Tobacco Production And Trends In The Traditional Burley Regions Of Tennessee, North Carolina, And Virginia, Lakeya Jones

Masters Theses

The 2004 Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act, commonly referred to as the Tobacco Buyout Program, ended the federal tobacco program. This act ended price supports and quotas, and also ended reporting requirements. The tobacco industry is now faced with new challenges in tobacco production as they have scant information to base production decisions on. The 2006 Burley Tobacco Survey provides an initial outlook of future production, challenges, trends and expectations. The results from the survey were used to analyze future production decisions. An ordered logit model reveals that producers who received prices of $1.65/lb or more, have farms in …


Science, Technology And The Garden Of Maine: Industrial Farming In Aroostook County, 1850-1900, Thomas J. H. Reznick Jan 2007

Science, Technology And The Garden Of Maine: Industrial Farming In Aroostook County, 1850-1900, Thomas J. H. Reznick

Senior Scholars Papers in Computer Science

In the mid-nineteenth century, northern Maine farmers existed amidst tension between capitalist and non-capitalist forces. This conflict is best described in terms of recent discourse on the question of rural capitalism, a topic debated by such scholars as Allan Kulikoff and Christopher Clark. This is an intricate and nuanced debate that this paper does not intend to treat with. Suffice to say, Maine farmers were caught between traditional social institutions associated with their trade that did not entail market production, and the rise of rural capitalism associated with burgeoning new markets. However, by the turn of the century, northern Maine …