Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

Temperature Influence And Heat Management Requirements Of Microalgae Cultivation In Photobioreactors, Thomas Hagen Mehlitz

Master's Theses

Microalgae are considered one of the most promising feedstocks for biofuel production for the future. The most efficient way to produce vast amounts of algal biomass is the use of closed tubular photobioreactors (PBR). The heat requirement for a given system is a major concern since the best algae growth rates are obtained between 25-30 °C, depending on the specific strain. A procedure to determine temperature influence on algal growth rates was developed for a lab-scale PBR system using the species Chlorella. A maximum growth rate of 1.44 doublings per day at 29 °C (optimal temperature) was determined. In addition, …

Efficiency In Midwest Us Corn Ethanol Plants: A Plant Survey, Richard K. Perrin, Nickolas F. Fretes, Juan P. Sesmero

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Continuation of policy support for the US corn ethanol industry is being debated due to doubts about the greenhouse gas effects of the industry and the effects of the industry on food prices. Yet there is no publicly available data on the economic and technical performance of the current generation of plants, which constitute the overwhelming majority of the industry. This study helps to fill that gap. Seven recently constructed ethanol plants in seven Midwest US states provided details on input requirements and operating costs during 2006 and 2007. Results show that technical performance is substantially better than current estimates …

The California Global Warming Solutions Act Of 2006:The 2009 United States Global Warming Act?, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trap solar heat in the atmosphere, increasing global temperature by an estimated 1.4 degrees. Increases in global GHG emissions, resulting largely from increasing global energy use, have led to more heat being trapped in the atmosphere, leading to global warming. Major impacts of global warming include rising sea levels, higher temperatures and increased global migration of disease-carrying insects.

While there is continuing scientific discussion regarding how quickly the earth’s atmosphere will warm and when the adverse global warming impacts will occur, most scientists believe that GHG emissions must be reduced 50-80 percent in the next 50 …

Empathy Conditioned Conservation: "Walking-In-The-Shoes-Of-Others" As A Conservation Farmer, Robert Sheeder, Gary D. Lynne

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Since the destruction and despair caused by the dust bowl of the 1930’s, Americans and their government have taken a keen interest in natural resource conservation policy on agricultural land throughout the country. As a reflection of this, the farm bill of 1936 entitled the “Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act” included for the first time provisions that provided payments and support to farmers willing to employ soil conservation measures on their farms (Cain and Lovejoy, 2004). While the main purpose of this bill was to provide financial support to impoverished farmers dealing with low commodity prices, the fact remains …

Atlas Of Sorghum (Sorghum Bicolor (L.) Moench): Production In Eastern And Southern Africa, Charles S. Wortmann, Martha Mamo, Christopher Mburu, Elias Letayo, Girma Abebe, Kaizzi C. Kayuki, Medson Chisi, Munyaradzi Mativavarira, Soares Xerinda, Theophile Ndacyayisenga

INTSORMIL Scientific Publications

Grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a major crop in many parts of Africa and is noted for its versatility and diversity. It is adapted over a wide range of precipitation and temperature levels and is produced at sea level to above 2000 m altitude. In eastern and southern Africa, it is primarily a crop of resource-poor, small-scale farmers and is typically produced under adverse conditions such as low input use and marginal lands. There are numerous biotic and abiotic constraints to production. The grain and stover are used in many different ways with localized preferences. Much information …

Heterogeneous Transport Costs And Spatial Sorting In A Model Of New Economic Geography, Corey Lang

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications

Transportation costs are of central importance in the New Economic Geography literature, though assumptions about transportation costs continue to be simplistic. This paper begins to address these simplifications by assuming that transportation costs for manufactured goods are heterogeneous. Basic results are consistent with standard models showing dispersion of economic activity for high transport costs and eventual agglomeration as transport costs decline. However, several novel features arise too. Many unstable, dispersed equilibria exist for high average transport costs, but converge to a stable equilibrium path as transport costs decrease. Equilibrium paths smoothly transition from dispersion to agglomeration and do so at …

The Impact Of Military Forts On Agricultural Investments On The Great Plains In 1880, Christopher Decker, David T. Flynn

Economics Faculty Publications

We empirically investigate the relationship between agricultural development and proximity to military forts in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado in 1880. Agricultural investments are substantially higher in counties where a military fort is present, suggesting that military forts stimulated agricultural development on the Great Plains. However, the reverse is not true; there is no statistical support for the notion that forts necessarily located in counties where substantial development was already occurring. Moreover, we found that while the presence of a military fort has the effect of increasing agricultural development, there is no evidence that such a presence sustained agricultural development.

An Inventory And Condition Survey Of The Lower Murchison River Area, Western Australia, P Hennig

Technical Bulletins

The inventory and condition survey of the lower Murchison River area, undertaken by the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) between 2002 and 2003, describes and maps the natural resources of the region’s pastoral leasehold land. This survey report provides a baseline record of the existence and condition of the natural area’s resources, to assist with the planning and implementation of land management practices. The report identified and described the condition of soils, landforms, vegetation, habitat, ecosystems, and declared plants and animals. It also assessed the impact of pastoralism and made land management recommendations. This survey report presents …

Why Study Applied/Agricultural Economics, Matt Bogard

Agriculture Department Seminar Series

Agricultural Economics is a very applied field covering many topics beyond those stereotypically thought of as pertaining to agriculture. These may include finance and risk management, environmental and natural resource economics, game theory, or public policy analysis to name a few.

Estimating The Effectiveness Of A Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax In Reducing Particulate Matter Emissions, Jordan Larsen, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

This study estimates the effectiveness of a vehicle miles travelled (VMT) tax in controlling mobile-source emissions of particulate matter (PM2.5) in a non-attainment area located in northern Utah. Using a recently updated household-level dataset, the study finds no evidence of an endogenous relationship between choice of vehicle type and VMT. VMT elasticities are also estimated with respect to cost per mile that are in some cases larger in magnitude than those reported in previous studies. Based on vehicle emissions tests performed by the Houston Advanced Research Center, the study estimates the reduction in particulate emissions that would occur with two …

An Hsus Report: The Impact Of Industrialized Animal Agriculture On World Hunger, The Humane Society Of The United States

Impact of Animal Agriculture

Of the world’s nearly 6.8 billion humans, almost 1 billion people are malnourished. Feeding half the world’s grain crop to animals raised for meat, eggs, and milk instead of directly to humans is a significant waste of natural resources, including fossil fuels, water, and land. Raising animals for food is also a major contributor to global warming, which is expected to further worsen food security globally. To meet the daily nutritional needs of a rapidly expanding population, the world’s human community, particularly in Western countries, must reduce its reliance on animal products and shift to a more plant-based diet.

How Coupled Are Decoupled Farm Payments? A Review Of The Evidence, Arathi Bhaskar, John C. Beghin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This survey paper explores the literature on decoupling of farm programs that has emerged in the last 10 years. The paper identifies and assesses the various channels of potential coupling of decoupled farm payments and provides a taxonomy of coupling mechanisms found in theoretical and empirical papers. Coupling of decoupled payments is pervasive but effects when measurable are small, with the exception of the impact on land values. The paper points to unresolved issues on potential coupling mechanisms for further research.

Domestic subsidies to agriculture were brought under the discipline of global trade rules for the first time in the …

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Developments 2008-2009, Bruce B. Johnson, Ryan Lukassen

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Following strong value advances over the past several years, Nebraska farmland values throttled down and stabilized across most of the state during the 12-month period ending February 1, 2009. According the 2009 UNL Nebraska Farm Real Estate Survey, the average all-land value rose just over 1% for the year. Some modest decreases in value were reported for some classes of land, but relative to recent trends for residential and commercial property across the U.S., stable values for agricultural land speaks to its relative strength in the current recession.

Regional differences in value shifts were rather significant over the time period. …

International Trade And Industrial Geography, Fabien Tondel

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the impact of international trade on the geographic location of manufacturing activities and on regional productivity growth patterns within countries. This study develops models of trade with monopolistic competition in the context of a two-region country. It also provides empirical estimates of the e ect of tari policy on the distribution of industrial activities and on productivity growth di erentials across Colombia's regions.

The rst essay investigates the consequences of trade liberalization for the distribution of manufacturing activities between large and small cities. It presents an extension of the Melitz (2003) model of trade with monopolistic competition …

African Aid And Success: Four Keys, Susan Paganelli

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has occasional success stories, but they are intermingled amongst tales of waste and failure. The stark reality is that more of the population of SSA is chronically undernourished in the present decade than it was in 1992 and 50 percent of the population is still considered to be living in extreme poverty. These problems persist in spite of the $650 billion given in aid to Africa by the world’s concerned countries since 1960 (Sunderberg and Gelp 2006). It is clear that money and good intent are not sufficient to alleviate the suffering in Africa.

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Developments 2008-2009, Bruce B. Johnson, Ryan Lukassen

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Reports

Following strong value advances over the past several years, Nebraska farmland values throttled down and stabilized across most of the state during the 12-month period ending February 1, 2009. According the 2009 UNL Nebraska Farm Real Estate Survey, the average all-land value rose just over 1% for the year. Some modest decreases in value were reported for some classes of land, but relative to recent trends for residential and commercial property across the U.S., stable values for agricultural land speaks to its relative strength in the current recession.

Regional differences in value shifts were rather significant over the time period. …

Food Insecurity In Sub-Saharan Africa, Amy Rademacher

Human Rights & Human Welfare

For almost half a century, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been struggling, in one form or another, with food insecurity. This ongoing condition has been caused by a number of factors including distribution obstacles, global climate change, a lack of successful local agriculture, and an inability or disinterest to act by local officials. The situation has been further complicated by an inefficient and disorganized international response to the crisis. Although most would agree that each of these factors carries at least some validity, there is far less international consensus on the best remedy to the crisis.

Structural Changes In U.S. Agricultural Production And Productivity, Jennifer S. James, Julian M. Alston, Philip G. Pardey, Matthew A. Andersen

Agribusiness

The structure of U.S. agricultural production changed dramatically during the 20th Century. Major technological innovations transformed the relationship between agricultural inputs and outputs, and contributed to rapid increases in agricultural productivity. However, evidence is mounting that suggests we have entered a new era, with substantially lower rates of productivity growth. In this article, we examine trends and spatial patterns in agricultural input use, production of outputs, and productivity. We focus on productivity growth over the period 1949–2002, and find a statistically significant slowdown in productivity growth after 1990.

Setting Agricultural Science Strategy In Tumultuous Economic Times, Jennifer S. James, Julian M. Alston, Philip G. Pardey

Agribusiness

The international competitiveness and prosperity of U.S. agriculture depends on steady and rapid productivity growth fueled by public agricultural research and development (R&D). Agricultural science benefits consumers and the environment, not just farmers. Enhanced productivity as a result of agricultural R&D means that consumers have access to a more abundant, cheaper, safer, higher quality, and more diverse and convenient food supply, produced with less stress on natural resources and the environment. From a global perspective, productivity growth allows agricultural production to increase faster than demand; food has become much cheaper over time in spite of a rapidly growing world population …

The Economics Of Agricultural R&D, Julian M. Alston, Philip G. Pardey, Jennifer S. James, Matthew A. Andersen

Agribusiness

Agricultural research has transformed agriculture and in doing so contributed to the transformation of economies. Economic issues arise because agricultural research is subject to various market failures, because the resulting innovations and technological changes have important economic consequences for net income and its distribution, and because the consequences are difficult to discern and attribute. Economists have developed models and measures of the economic consequences of agricultural R&D and related policies in contributions that relate to a very broad literature ranging across production economics, development economics, industrial organization, economic history, welfare economics, political economy, econometrics, and so on. A key general …

Economics And Policy Context For The Biological Management Of Soil Fertility (Bmsf) In Ethiopia, Habtamu T. Kassahun, Charles F. Nicholson, Dawit Solomon, Amy S. Collick, Tammo S. Steenhuis

Agribusiness

Many developing countries implement programs and policies to increase or maintain soil fertility, with the objectives of increased crop yields and decreased poverty. However, few countries give emphasis to the biological management of soil fertility (BMSF) compared to more traditional approaches. Ethiopia emphasizes the use synthetic fertilizers to increase food security and reduce poverty, with little attention to BMSF. This paper examines the long term fertilizer consumption and agricultural productivity response trend and discusses the potential for BMSF to promote agricultural productivity and reduce poverty in Ethiopia. The paper also discusses the Economics and Policy Context for BMSF for the …

Pricing And Welfare Impacts Of New Crop Traits: The Role Of Iprs And Coase's Conjecture Revisited, Richard K. Perrin, Lilyan E. Fulginiti

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Crop traits are durable when embedded in varieties, and thus they may be subject to Coase's conjecture that monopolists who sell durables may be unable to earn normal monopoly rents, or in the extreme case, not any rents at all. To determine the potential relevance of this conjecture for the crop traits market, we analyze the theoretical time path of trait prices under three systems of intellectual property rights (utility patents, plant breeders' rights, and none), alternative assumptions about sellers' ability to commit to future action, and alternative assumptions that buyers are either myopic or far-sighted with respect to expectations …

Studies In Statistical Inference, Sampling Techniques And Demography, Florentin Smarandache, Rajesh Singh, Jayant Singh

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This volume is a collection of five papers. Two chapters deal with problems in statistical inference, two with inferences in finite population, and one deals with demographic problem. The ideas included here will be useful for researchers doing works in these fields. The following problems have been discussed in the book: Chapter 1. In this chapter optimum statistical test procedure is discussed. The test procedures are optimum in the sense that they minimize the sum of the two error probabilities as compared to any other test. Several examples are included to illustrate the theory. Chapter 2. In testing of hypothesis …

Central Bank Of Nigeria Annual Report And Statement Of Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December 2008., Central Bank Of Nigeria

CBN Annual Report

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)'s 2008 report evaluates macroeconomic policies and outcomes, focusing on corporate operations and the economy's performance against domestic and external economic and financial developments. The CBN's monetary policy stance and banking and financial measures were deployed to ensure price stability and financial sector soundness. Despite the global economic downturn, the financial system remained relatively stable and overall macroeconomic performance was satisfactory. The formal financial system at end-December 2008 comprised the CBN, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Insurance Commission, the National Pension Commission, and various banks. The banking sector …

The Return To College Education, Bill Adamson, Ritu Hooda

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

Causality And Granger Causality; Dependency On The Ethanol Industry, Jing Li, Yonas G. Hamda

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

Planning Your Business In The Volatile Economy Of 2009, Doug Jose

Cornhusker Economics

Planning what to grow in 2009 has many complications this year. Among the possible unknowns at the farm level are market prices for commodities, the cost and availability of inputs and the cost and availability of operating credit. I say “possible” because through contractual arrangements and forward pricing decisions you may already have locked in many of these prices for the next production cycle. Then there are a number of general economic situations which will impact agriculture. The financial recovery both here and worldwide is critical. Agriculture needs improvement in our general economy and improved consumer confidence in order to …

Solstice Surge; The Polish-American Extention Project, John A. Sodney, Gerald W. Warmann

Economics Commentator (1972- 2016)

No abstract provided.

New Rural Residents: Insights Into Their Decision To Stay Or Leave, Charlotte Narjes, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel

Cornhusker Economics

What brought new residents to the Nebraska Panhandle? For many, it was the image of a small town environment, which they described as a family and faith oriented community, safe and free of traffic and congestion and often located closer to family.

This insight was one of many identified through twelve regional focus group interviews conducted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty as part of a research project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture-National Research Initiative.

While a number of individuals were pleased with the small town atmosphere, others found that their image of the community did not …

Cow Size, Perhaps More Than Just A Production Efficiency Decision, Matthew Stockton, Dillion Feuz, Roger K. Wilson

Cornhusker Economics

In Cattle Today, an online beef producer’s magazine, a February 7, 2008 article titled “Preconditioned Calves Give Premium At Market” contained this statement, "We're weaning calves bigger and younger than we ever have. Many calves now weigh 600 to 700 pounds at weaning, whereas 20 or 30 years ago a yearling would weigh 600 to 700 pounds.” (http://www.cattletoday.com/archive/2008/February/CT1 411.shtml).

If you asked experts in the beef industry, you would probably get many different answers as to why calf size has increased. Some of the factors that probably have had an influence in increasing size include a better understanding of …