Agribusiness Commons^™

The Combine: Program Overview (Brochure)

The Combine

Nebraska is known nationally for its distinguished brand and production efficiency in food and agriculture. The state ranks among the top producers of over a dozen commodities including corn, beans, beef, and millet.

The Combine is a statewide program focused on fostering high-growth innovation and entrepreneurship in food and agriculture-tech sectors. The initiative is led by Invest Nebraska with support from The Nebraska Department of Economic Development and The Nebraska Department of Agriculture.

Invest Nebraska Corporation builds a better future for our state by providing financial and operational assistance to high growth companies, developing high growth infrastructure, and attracting out-of-state …

Contents, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Dean, Deacue Fields

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Economics Of On-Farm Rice Drying In Arkansas, Clayton J. Parker, Lanier Nalley

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Globally, rice producers are faced with the temporal problem of deciding the optimal time to harvest rice. When harvested, paddy rice is typically at a harvest moisture content (HMC) between 15% and 22% and subsequently dried by the mill to a moisture content (MC) of 12.5%. Riceland Foods Inc., the largest miller of rice in the world, uses a stair-step pricing model to charge farmers to dry, which can complicate the timing of harvest as producers try to balance the tradeoff of minimizing drying costs by waiting to harvest at lower HMC vs. maintaining higher rice quality typically observed when …

The Biofiltration Ability Of Asparagus Densiflorus To Remove Sulfur Dioxide From The Indoor Atmosphere, Rhiannon De La Rosa, Mary Savin

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Sulfur dioxide is an inorganic compound (IC) and air pollutant that causes health risks in humans. The buildup of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in enclosed indoor spaces is, therefore, a concern to human health, especially since the average person spends 90% of his/her time indoors. This study focused on decreasing SO2 concentration in a cost-effective and simple way—by using botanical biofiltration, or the uptake of pollutants by plants. Research in biofiltration has focused mostly on the remediation of volatile organic compounds (VOC). However, research has also shown that plant species that remediate VOC efficiently also have the potential for efficient IC …

The Political Preference Of Arkansas Farmers And Ranchers, Rachel J. Barry, Donna L. Graham

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Access to information is critical to improving production efficiency, but little is known about how farmers are informed on the policy or issues influencing programs related to farming. This research sought to determine the sources of communication used by farmers and ranchers to form opinions about agricultural policy and candidates, identify the issues important in voting, and their level of participation in the political process. Face-to-face interaction was the preferred form of communication in farm organization meetings, with friends, or farm agencies. Magazines were the preferred source of print communication, and university/extension websites were preferred for internet sources. Broadcast media …

The Impact Of Income On Nutrition: A Case Study Of Northern Mozambique, Hunter Swanigan, Lawton Lanier Nalley

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

In 2017, Mozambique ranked as one of the least developed countries in the world by measures of health, education, and income. With a minimal annual income, purchasing adequate food to meet recommended levels of nutrients for a healthy diet is difficult, leaving 40% of the country undernourished. This study analyzed what foods are available during the dry months (hungry season) of May through October in the Nampula province of Mozambique to determine if it is possible to meet recommended levels of nutrients from purchasing and growing food. Three different levels of income were used to determine what percentage of the …

Food Accessibility Related To The Double Your Dollar Program, Julia Carlson, Heather Friedrich, Mechelle Bailey, Curt Rom

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

The Double Your Dollar (DYD) Program is a program that gives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) participants match dollars to spend at local farmers markets. The DYD’s goal is to incentivize healthy eating among individuals of low income and promote spending at farmers markets. Food insecurity affects over 60,000 individuals in Washington and Benton counties in Arkansas. The aim of this study was to assess how the DYD program impacted users’ food accessibility and how the program could be improved for the future. A survey was used to address basic demographics, type, …

Integrated Assessment—How Does It Help Unpack Water Access By Marginalized Farmers?, Serena H. Hamilton, Wendy S. Merritt, Mahanambrota Das, M. Wakilur Rahman, Sumana S. Bhuiya, Lucy Carter, Michaela Cosijn, Christian H. Roth, Sambhu Singha, Geoffrey J. Syme

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Water is critical to the lives and livelihoods of rural communities in developing countries; however, access to water can be inequitable within communities. This paper uses a generalized integrated assessment approach to explore the determinants of water access by marginalized farmers in two villages in coastal Bangladesh, before and after the setup of local water institutions. The study was part of a broader project aimed at promoting socially inclusive agricultural intensification. An integrative framework was developed in this study to capture and link the diverse range of factors that influence the …

The Intersection Of Deforestation And Economic Growth In The Brazilian Amazon, Victoria Oceguera

Student Theses 2015-Present

Abstract

As a result of capital gain, deforestation of the Amazon in Brazil continues. Brazilian government's insufficient efforts to mitigate and enforce the preservation of these precious forests has ledto the commodification of the Amazon. Chapter 1 uses historical and quantitative data to examine the negative impacts of deforestation on indigenous communities and climate change. Chapter2 employs economics to analyze the role of business as a crucial component of deforestation in Brazil. Chapter 3 engages politics in Brazil to discuss interactions between key actors involved in the perpetuation of deforestation. Chapter 3 examines the interactions between politics and corruption involved …

The Impact Of Income On Nutrition. A Case Study Of Northern Mozambique, Hunter Swanigan

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

In 2017, Mozambique ranked as one of the least-developed countries in the world by measures of health, education, and income, and had one of the lowest GDP per capita at $1,300. With a minimal income, purchasing adequate food to meet recommended levels of nutrients for a healthy diet is difficult, leaving almost half of the country’s population undernourished. This study researched what foods are available during the dry months (hungry season) of May through October in the Nampula province of Mozambique to analyze if it is possible to meet the National Institutes of Health’s recommended levels of nutrients from purchasing …

Drinking Wine And Saving Ancient Steep Vineyards: Interview With Winemaker Martin Müllen (Mosel), Anke Klitzing

Articles

I spoke with winemaker Martin Müllen about the challenges and rewards of cultivating and maintaining the ancient steep vineyards along the Mosel river, which yield amazingly complex Riesling wines and have been renowned for centuries.

Production Performance Of Freshwater Prawn (Macrobrachium Rosenbergii) Reared At Two Stocking Densities And Fed Only Wet Brewers Grains, Shawn Coyle, Kalvin Rucker

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Production performance of freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) reared at two stocking densities and fed only wet brewers grains. KALVIN RUCKER, SHAWN COYLE, and JAMES TIDWELL, Kentucky State University, College of Agriculture, Communities and the Environment, Frankfort, KY 40601.

Successful freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) culture is based upon producing high-value outputs (prawn) from low-cost inputs (feed[CM1] ). Sinking catfish feed have traditionally been the recommended feed. The use of locally available by-products has the potential to reduce production costs. Wet brewers grains (WBG) are the solid residue left after the processing of cereal grains to produce …

“Got Water?” The Effects Of Globalized Agribusiness On Consumers’ Access To Water Sources, Lorena Garcia-Ramon

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This paper conceptually examines the consequences of globalized industrial agriculture on consumers’ access to clean water sources. It identifies the historical conditioners that allowed contemporary agribusiness corporations to gain the influence they currently hold over global water consumption, and it discusses the struggles that consumers face without access to clean water. The paper makes an original contribution by shifting the focus from the fact that vulnerable consumers do not have access to clean water to the reasons why they do not have access. It is suggested that water conservation strategies should not only be implemented at the consumer level, but …

A Global Spatial Analysis Reveals Where Marine Aquaculture Can Benefit Nature And People, Seth J. Theuerkauf, James A. Morris Jr, Tiffany J. Waters, Lisa C. Wickliffe, Heidi K. Alleway

Aquaculture and Fisheries Collection

Aquaculture of bivalve shellfish and seaweed represents a global opportunity to simultaneously advance coastal ecosystem recovery and provide substantive benefits to humanity. To identify marine ecoregions with the greatest potential for development of shellfish and seaweed aquaculture to meet this opportunity, we conducted a global spatial analysis using key environmental (e.g., nutrient pollution status), socioeconomic (e.g., governance quality), and human health factors (e.g., wastewater treatment prevalence). We identify a substantial opportunity for strategic sector development, with the highest opportunity marine ecoregions for shellfish aquaculture centered on Oceania, North America, and portions of Asia, and the highest opportunity for seaweed aquaculture …

Obstacles To Accessing Pro-Poor Microcredit Programs In China: Evidence From Penggan Village, Guizhou, Deborah Shu Yi Tan, Track Tze Tuan Tan, Shao Tong Ling, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why do poor farmers not take up microcredit loans, even when the terms are designed to be pro-poor? Fieldwork in a village in China’s Guizhou province revealed a puzzle: although the county government had designed a loan program that was intended to be unusually pro-poor, only three of the 349 eligible households had successfully applied. This article analyzes three potential hypotheses: farmer failure (risk aversion or financial illiteracy), market failure (lack of viable or stable market opportunities), and institutional failure (structural or institutional barriers precluding taking up loans). Based on evidence from intensive interviews, we reject the first hypothesis, and …

A Consumer Awareness Study Towards Purchasing Of Organic Products In Hisar City, Seema Parmar, Suman Sahrawat Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Organic products gained significant place in the minds of consumers. Everyone is concerned about their health and rely on the products that are produced, stored and processed without using any chemical residue and artificial fertilizers. This study is an empirical research has two main objectives i.e. to determine the relationship between kind of organic products customers buy and benefit of using Organic Products and secondly to determine the significant relationship between reasons for choosing organic products and benefit of using Organic Products. Data has been analysed with the help of a questionnaire on a Likert scale ranging from 1= Strongly …

Wti Crude Oil Option Implied Var And Cvar: An Empirical Application, Giovanni Barone-Adesi, Marinela Adriana Finta, Chiara Legnazzi, Carlo Sala

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Using option market data we derive naturally forward-looking, non-parametric and model-free risk estimates, three desired characteristics hardly obtainable using historical returns. The option-implied measures are only based on the first derivative of the option price with respect to the strike price, bypassing the difficult task of estimating the tail of the return distribution. We estimate and backtest the 1%, 2.5%, and 5% WTI crude oil futures option-implied value at risk and conditional value at risk for the turbulent years 2011–2016 and for both tails of the distribution. Compared with risk estimations based on the filtered historical simulation methodology, our results …

Developing A Social Marketing Plan For Direct To Consumer Agricultural Operations, Madelaine Giebler

Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Since the 1980 farm crisis, the agricultural economy has continued to decline with United States farmers receiving less than 16 cents per dollar spent on food (Dunnum, 2017). As a way of combatting decreased profitability, agricultural producers are turning to direct marketing (Rainey, et al., 2011). Direct marketing exists as a social marketing in which producers develop a personal relationship with their customers (Rainey, McGraw, & Popp, 2011; Weinreich, 2011). In order to be successful in social marketing, the audience with which they are trying to reach must be determined as well as the most effective way to meet the …

The Future Of Work: How Employers Are Adjusting To Millennial Expectations, Felipe Vallejo

Agricultural Education and Communication

The purpose of this research was to examine how agricultural based companies are staying ahead while new technology advancements and millennial expectations are influencing future labor markets.

The Economic Evaluation Of Input Use Prescription Maps: Are You Paying To Make Less Profit?, Grant Edward Gardner

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

Variable Rate Prescriptions used by farmers to apply agricultural inputs are largely privatized and are normally seen only by the farmer that applies the prescription and the consultants whom create the prescription maps. Farmers need a way to evaluate the prescriptions that are being applied to fields. This paper explores modeling techniques which could be applied by farmers to determine the profitability of a particular consultant. Regression modeling is used on field trials which have been divided into site-specific management zones (SSMZ) based on a consultant’s variable rate prescriptions. Production functions are created for each management zone. The production functions …

Estimating Demand Elasticities For Rice In Benin, Ogoudele Simon Codjo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rice consumption in Benin is increasing along with shifting consumer demand toward higher quality rice. In this context of changing demands, experimental estimation methods provide an effective way to estimate the current state of consumer preferences. We conducted a hypothetical choice experiment in 15 open markets in Benin to analyze the demand for rice and its substitutes. The results reveal that consumers value quality rice, even those in the low-income class. While high income consumers are more likely to choose high quality imported rice, low- and middle-income consumers are more likely to select high quality domestic rice among the set …

An Empirical Examination Of Formal And Informal Institutional Factors’ Influence On Global Food Industry Sustainability Engagement, Kat Yamamoto

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

This study contributes to the sustainability literature through empirical investigation on how both formal and informal institutional factors influence the level of global food industry’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) engagement (also known as sustainability engagement). This study proposed six hypotheses to be tested for formal and informal institutional factors’ influence on sustainability engagement with simple and multiple linear regression analyses, correlation analysis to examine the relationship between sustainability engagement and individual countries’ institutional factors. Six institutional factors the author studied include Yale’s World Economic Forum’s environmental performance index; the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) Foundation’s food loss and …

The Wine Stone Inn, Kendall N. Doud

Agricultural Education and Communication

The Wine Stone Inn is a new 12-room boutique hotel currently being built in Old Town Orcutt, California. The hotel is seeking a grand opening that will attract vintner business, agribusiness, and agricultural vendors for the hotel, and help promote local wineries and breweries in the Santa Maria Valley. Orcutt is a growing township, which is becoming very attractive to visitors because of the walking distance to restaurants, local pubs, wine venues, and other businesses that project growth in the future. Agribusiness makes up a small percentage of the corporate market and agritourism is a growing segment in this area. …

Bonipak Trucker Lounge Improvements, Lauren M. Reade

Agricultural Education and Communication

Bonita Packing Company, also known as Bonipak, has been a produce grower and shipper in the Santa Maria Valley for nearly 90 years and has contracts with customers all over the United States and Canada. Since 1932, the family owned and operated business has maintained steady growth as the population continues to rise all while making it a goal to uphold their family values and maintain their deep roots within the community. Transitioning into a fourth generation family farm, the Bonipak team hopes to continue to promote growth and maintain a positive reputation within the community and beyond. With multiple …

Feasibility Of Custom Aquaponics For Home Use, Jesse Blanchard

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

The primary goal of this research is to access the feasibility of implementing and operating small scale aquaponic systems in a home setting to serve as a means of producing high quality fresh produce and fish protein to supplement similar store-bought products. Factors such as system cost, skill level and management requirements will be addressed alongside customizable, educational and sustainable aspects of aquaponic systems to determine whether home aquaponic systems are a feasible option for the home grower. To elaborate, feasibility in this research will refer to both economic costs relative to costs of the system. Outlined in this short …

The Effect Of Foreign Direct Investment On Food Security: A Case Study From Rural Mozambique, Kali Fleming

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

Poverty and food insecurity in the sub-Saharan African region have been exacerbated by the worst drought in 23 years, which impacted 25 countries in Southern and Eastern Africa from 2015-2016. In Mozambique alone it was estimated that the 2015-2016 drought resulted in over 1.5 million people becoming food insecure (FAO, 2016). To mitigate the increasing problem of household food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Food Program recommends job creation to target the most vulnerable populations. Job creation is often the result of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). However, critics of FDI often cite concerns of human rights abuses, inadequate working …

Identifying Arkansas Food Desert Blocks Suitable For A Peer-To-Peer Modeled Food Redistribution Program, Emily King

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

­­­­­­­­­ Nearly 10% of Americans reside in low-income urban food deserts which are low-income areas that lack access to affordable and nutritious foods. Food deserts in Arkansas contribute to a food insecurity rate above the national average, making it one of the most food insecure states in the country. Efforts to alleviate food deserts have included working with supermarkets to construct stores in underserved areas, encouraging the growth of farmers’ markets, and passing the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI). The inability of these programs to provide food desert residents with a variety of accessible and affordable food items year-round …

Evaluation Of Herd Size Management Strategies, Colson A. Tester

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is comprised of two studies examining the effects of price signal based herd size management strategies on profitability of cow-calf operations. Herd size management strategies were evaluated across the previous two cattle cycles, 1990-2014, using a fixed land resource and included a variety of production scenarios. These scenarios varied in terms of stocking rates, fertilizer applications rates, and calving season. Each scenario was also analyzed both with and without weather effects on forage production. Weather effects were simulated using a production index derived from satellite imagery across the observed 25-year period. Three herd size management strategies: i) constant …

Producer Preferences For Alternative Irrigation Practices In The Arkansas Delta, Robert Edward Rosene

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We use a bivariate sample selection model to address peer network effects on participation in and/or intensity of use of land being irrigated by alternative irrigation practices in the state of Arkansas. As groundwater in the state becomes more limited, the use of scientific scheduling, flowmeters, and more efficient row crop water application systems will allow producers to better manage water resources. We find relatively large, positive relationships between belonging to a peer network of the same irrigation practice and participation in that practice. Intensity of use of alternative irrigation techniques is mostly influenced by which crop type the practice …