Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

Three Essays On Extreme Weather, Agricultural Productivity, And Water Resources, Munib Inam

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

As extreme weather events become more frequent and more intense, understanding their effects becomes increasingly important. This dissertation examines those effects and related policy questions across three essays.

The first essay demonstrates that methodological choices in weather data construction can meaningfully affect estimated agricultural impacts of extreme weather. Using corn yields across the U.S. Corn Belt, it shows that constructing nonlinear weather measures after spatial interpolation reduces measured exposure to extreme heat and changes both estimated yield impacts and their downstream economic implications.

The second essay examines how weather exposure affects drinking water quality. It shows that microbial contamination responds …

Brewing Resilience: Cooperatives, Micro-Mills, And The Quest For Survival In Costa Rica's Changing Coffee Landscape, Leila N. Iredell

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how different organizational models in Costa Rica's coffee sector shape producers’ ability to capture value, build resilience, and sustain rural livelihoods in a rapidly changing global market. In comparing traditional cooperatives and new micro-mills, I examine specifically how control over the value chain, access to markets, and social infrastructure differ across models and what these differences mean for the farmers who depend on them. This project analyzes how the collapse of international price agreements and decades of market volatility drove producers toward new strategies, from independent processing and direct trade to coffee tourism. Costa Rica stands as …

Below The Rows, Beyond The Roots: An Art Exhibition Depicting Agriculture Across The Globe, Maggie Enoch

Honors Theses and Capstones

In Below the Rows, Beyond the Roots, artist Maggie Enoch creates multimedia works inspired by her exposure to diverse agricultural systems and perspectives while studying geography and sustainable agriculture/food systems around the world. By integrating complex histories with the contemporary realities of farming, Maggie paints vivid pictures of the power of food in this five-piece exhibition.

Brief #1: Collaborative Aggregation & Marketing Of Local Farm Food: A Qualitative Analysis Of Farmers' Collaboration Strategies, Evan England, Rachel Filippone, Hannah Stokes-Ramos, Cindy (Luyue) Zheng, Olivia Burton, Analena Bruce

Food Practice Research

This report presents research findings from a comparative case study of four Collaborative Aggregation and Marketing Models: Local Harvest, a cooperative non-profit, farmer-owned, and certified organic CSA, Three River Farmers Alliance, an online food hub and regional distributor, Vernon Family Farm Store, an on-farm, year-round store that aggregates from local farms, and Fresh Start Farms, a food hub, farmers’ market, and CSA operated by the nonprofit Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success.

Modeling Determinants Of Significant Noncompliance In The U.S. Mining Sector: A Fixed Effects Logistic Regression Approach, Eli Johnson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study examines environmental compliance behavior among mining facilities regulated under the U.S. Clean Water Act (CWA). Using a national quarterly panel of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)-permitted mining facilities, the analysis evaluates whether local socioeconomic and demographic indicators are associated with the likelihood that a facility enters significant noncompliance (SNC) status. Facility compliance histories are compiled from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database and is merged with county- and state-level socioeconomic indicators and election data. A fixed-effects logistic regression model is used to account for time-invariant facility heterogeneity. The results suggest that …

Towards Food Sovereignty In Cameroon: Indigenous Food Practices And Community Grain Banks In The Mayotsanaga Division Of The Far North Region, Prudencia Ayamba, Chimene Tankou Nkouamou Epse Nukunah Dr

Journal of Critical Global Issues

Food security is a term defined in 1996 by the World Food Summit as a situation where everyone has both economic and physical access to nutritious and safe food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. This concept also became a priority during the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and later the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to combat world hunger by 2030. However, the term ‘food security’ has faced criticism for overlooking indigenous knowledge and practices in addressing the food crisis and for misrepresenting marginalized populations. Because of these limitations, the term …

Land Use Influences Dissolved Organic Matter Composition In The U.S. Coastal Critical Zone Network, Aleksandar I. Goranov, Elizabeth V. Whitney, Brian R. Moyer, Katherine L. Tully, Patrick G. Hatcher, Yu-Ping Chhin

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Coastal watersheds are highly productive biogeochemical systems supporting robust coastal fisheries and contributing significantly to the marine gross primary production flux. These ecosystems are comprised of civil infrastructure, farms, forests, and marshes, and their diversity is reflected in the quantity and quality of dissolved organic matter (DOM). Here, we assess the role of farming in influencing DOM from surface waters of six coastal tidal creeks adjacent to forest and farm sites in the US Critical Zone Network. Molecular fingerprinting using electrospray ionization - Fourier transform - ion cyclotron resonance - mass spectrometry revealed that farm-influenced DOM was enriched in nitrogen-, …

Good Food In The Neighborhood: Localizing Nutritious Food Access, Joseph Pool

Honors Program Theses

Given contemporary changes to federal budget priorities and recent challenges to federal food access funding, this research explores the potential benefits of entrusting state-level and municipal-level policymakers with food access policy. More specifically, this research suggests that “localizing” food access has the unique benefit of not just addressing the affordability of food, but the physical accessibility of it. As observed in the previous literature and expounded upon here, food provisioning requires consideration of nutrition, physical accessibility, and financial affordability. Programs that only address one of these priorities fail to adequately help people receive the food they need. Through policy analysis …

A Historical Analysis Of The Squatter Settlements (Sukumbasi) In Nepal And The Role Of Smart Settlements, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

In Nepal, landless populations can broadly be categorized into two groups: urban squatters and rural landless families. Each group can further be distinguished by its level of political connection and access to power.

Among urban squatters, politically connected groups often occupy open public spaces in cities with some degree of protection or tolerance from political parties. In contrast, less powerful urban squatters usually settle on public land because they cannot afford formal housing. These settlements are commonly located in unsafe or marginal areas, such as riverbanks, flood-prone zones, and unused public spaces. Despite these risks, many remain in urban areas …

Assessing The Impact Of Local–State Revenue Shares And Property Tax Structure On Effective Farmland Tax Rates: Panel Evidence From Seven Midwestern States, 2009–2022, Imtiaz Amin Chy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Property taxes are the primary revenue instrument of local governments in the United States, yet the burdens they impose are distributed unevenly. Farmland, because it cannot be relocated, often absorbs a disproportionate share. This paper examines two related questions: what fiscal factors determine how heavily agricultural land is taxed, and do those tax rates capitalize into farmland asset values? Using an annual panel of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin from 2009 to 2022, we first document how each state allocates property tax revenue across four major spending categories (education, public welfare, health, and utilities) finding that all …

Examining The Causes And Consequences Of Diverse Agricultural Management Practices On Land Carbon Dynamics In Eastern South Dakota, Khushboo Jain

Dissertations and Theses

Climate-smart agricultural practices such as conservation tillage, increased crop residue cover, and cover cropping play a critical role in improving soil health, enhancing climate resilience, and reducing carbon losses from croplands. However, their spatial distribution, long-term impacts on land–atmosphere carbon fluxes, and the ability to monitor them efficiently at regional scales remain insufficiently understood. This dissertation addresses these gaps through an integrated remote sensing, machine learning, and modeling framework applied across eastern South Dakota. Firstly, I developed a satellite-based approach to map tillage practices and detect cover crop presence using multisource spectral indices and environmental drivers. A machine learning classifier …

Connectivity And Selective Rural Migration, Lin Ma, Yuan Mei, Qunfeng Wu, Mingzhi Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study how infrastructure shapes rural development using household panel data from a nationally representative sample of Chinese villages, matched to high-resolution highway maps. Reduced-form results show that road expansion between 2000 and 2015 operates mainly through reallocation, with less productive farmers scaling down or exiting and more productive farmers remaining and expanding. We quantify the aggregate and distributional consequences in a dynamic spatial equilibrium model with heterogeneous households and endogenous migration. Improved connectivity not only accelerates urbanization, roughly doubling the speed of convergence, but also increases aggregate rural output by 2.2 to 5.3 percent in the long run, even …

Feasibility Of Corn Stover For Biogas Production In Northwestern Illinois: A Case Study Of Jo Daviess And Carroll Counties, Anthony Amotoe-Bondzie

Masters Theses

The growing demand for renewable energy and sustainable waste management has intensified interest in agricultural residues such as bioenergy feedstocks. This study evaluated the feasibility of converting corn stover into biogas through anaerobic digestion (AD) in Jo Daviess and Carroll Counties, Illinois, with consideration of the Savanna Industrial Park as a potential centralized processing hub. Although corn stover represents one of the largest biomass resources in the United States, this research identifies a critical gap between theoretical availability and practically recoverable feedstock. Using a mixed-methods framework, the study integrates biomass quantification, methane yield modeling, economic analysis, and policy assessment. Results …

Exploring The Impact Of Adverse Childhood Experiences On Preventive Healthcare Utilization In Rural Georgia, Ryan R. Traylor

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and preventive healthcare use among adults in Georgia, specifically within rural populations facing structural barriers. Using 2023 Georgia Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data, the research analyzes associations between ACE exposure, rural residence, and preventive care outcomes, including physical exams and flu vaccinations. Guided by an intersectionally adapted version of Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use, the study evaluates how predisposing factors, enabling resources, and perceived barriers relate to healthcare engagement. Logistic regression analyses assess the correlation of ACE exposure, cost barriers, provider access, and sociodemographics with preventive …

Brief #2: Collaborative Aggregation & Marketing Of Local Farm Food: A Qualitative Analysis Of Customer Relations Strategies, Evan England, Rachel Filippone, Hannah Stokes-Ramos, Cindy (Luyue) Zheng, Olivia Burton, Analena B. Bruce

Food Practice Research

No abstract provided.

Tourism And Quality Of Life In Montana: A Longitudinal Study Of Resident Attitudes 2012-2023, Sophie Morris, Melissa Weddell, Carter Bermingham, Megan Schultz

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

Montana’s outdoor recreation and tourism industries have experienced steady growth over the past decade. This report explores how that expansion has shaped residents’ perceptions of tourism. Drawing on data from Montana residents, we track changes in attitudes from 2012 to 2023 on key issues, including overcrowding, the balance between tourism’s benefits and its impacts, quality of life, and the state’s role in promoting tourism.

The State Of Short-Term Rentals – 2024, Elena Bigart, Melissa Weddell, Jesse Wheeler, Sophie Morris, Jenna Asnault

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This report examined the role short-term rentals (STRs) play in Montana’s housing challenges, building on earlier ITRR research (Bigart et al., 2021). Using a mixed-methods approach, the study analyzed STR and housing data from 2019 to 2023 and incorporated interviews with local officials to assess evolving regulations, occupancy patterns, and perceptions of STR impacts. Findings highlight that STRs interact with broader market forces contributing to tight housing conditions and underscore the need for balanced policy approaches that support housing supply and affordability while sustaining tourism-related economic activity.

Smallholder Farmers' Willingness To Pay For The Farmbetter Mobile App-Based Agricultural Extension: Evidence From A Bdm Experiment In Tanzania And Burkina Faso, Cool Dady Mangole, Kelvin Mulungu, Christian Kamala Kaghoma, Maurice Tschopp, Menale Kassie

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Financial contributions from farmers are increasingly acknowledged as a sustainable mechanism for funding extension services. However, the literature on willingness to pay (WTP) for digital agricultural extension is limited. Conducting a thorough assessment of WTP for digital extension is critical for designing effective pricing policies and ensuring financial sustainability. This study examines the WTP for a novel digital extension platform named farmbetter, leveraging primary data collected in Tanzania and Burkina Faso. The Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) experiment was used to elicit the amount farmers are willing to pay. We applied the Lasso machine learning to predict the relevant drivers of WTP and …

Envisioning The Role Of Community-Owned Stores & Aligning Federal Food Policies: A Participatory Approach To Food Security And Food Sovereignty In Sambaa K’E, Denendeh (Northwest Territories, Canada), Narayan Subramoniam

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Northern Indigenous communities have relied on traditional food systems for meaningful, nutritious diets since time immemorial. But many Indigenous communities in remote northern regions of Canada still face disproportionately elevated levels of food insecurity due to climate change radically altering the availability for traditional foods, colonial food policies imposing Western diets, and the high costs of transporting store-bought foods. Extreme weather events such as wildfires further isolate fly-in remote communities increasing both the costs of transporting store-bought foods and the difficulties of harvesting traditional foods. There are many examples of community-based initiatives for supporting traditional and locally grown foods, however, …

Cultivating Diversity In Sustainable Food Systems: Black Farming And Lived Experience In Rural Southern Ontario, Kadeem Jerofy Morgan-Adamson Mr.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research examines the lived experiences of Black food growers in rural Southern Ontario to understand how their perspectives challenge dominant narratives of rurality and inform broader discussions on food sovereignty in Canada. Grounded in postcolonial theory, the study highlights how historical dispossession and persistent inequities shape the access of Black communities to land and resources. Using a mixed-methods approach that includes surveys, semi-structured interviews, and reflexive journaling within a community-based research framework, the study documents the barriers Black food growers face. These include limited land access, insufficient funding, inadequate training pathways, and experiences of racial isolation in rural contexts. …

Food Apartheid And The Retail Food Environment In The Bronx, Aissatou Barry

CUNY Mexican Studies Institute

This project examines the structural mechanisms that contribute to unequal food access, both historical and ongoing, in the South Bronx, and applies the food apartheid framework created by Bronx food activist Karen Washington. This paper applies the framework to two food retail initiatives in NYC: the New York State Regional Hub and the New York City FRESH food program to assess whether their policies address the structural mechanisms that contribute to food inequality. I ask: How does the unequal distribution of healthy food access in the Bronx reflect broader patterns of racial and economic exclusion? To what extent do current …

Economic Analysis And Technical Efficiency Of Cassava Production In Rural Households Of Yewa South Local Government Ogun State, Babatunde Taiye Oluwasola, Babatunde Oluyemisi Omowunmi, Andokeke Nkemdiri Nobert

Journal of Bioresource Management

The study examined economic analysis and technical efficiency of cassava production in rural household in Yewa South local Government area of Ogun state. Structure questionnaires were administered to one hundred registered cassava farmers within the ten (10) villages. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the data; results revealed that the age of the cassava farmers ranged between (25 – 45) years. Only 55.0 % of the farmers were married, having both primary and secondary education respectively, majority (63.0 %) having 11-15 years of experience. The result of the frontier on the efficiency of cassava production of farmers showed …

The 2025 Pakistan Floods: Investigating The Human, Agricultural, And Economic Collapse, Abdullah Khan

MSJ Capstone Projects

This project examines the 2025 Pakistan floods as a multidimensional climate disaster that triggered severe human, agricultural, and economic consequences. Moving beyond event-based reporting, the study examines how climate change, weak governance, poor infrastructure planning, and delayed institutional responses intensified the scale of destruction. Using investigative journalism methods, the project combines field reporting from flood-affected areas, in-depth interviews with displaced communities, local activists, and experts, and analysis of official data and policy documents. The findings reveal widespread displacement, loss of livelihoods, food insecurity, and long-term social vulnerability, particularly among marginalized rural populations. Agricultural collapse emerged as a central concern, threatening …

Why Food In The United States May (Still) Never Be Safe: A Look Back At My Over Thirty Years Thinking About Food And The Law, Denis Stearns

Journal of Food Law & Policy

This article can serve a function as a concluding section—a kind of coda—for issues addressed in greater depth by the author (Denis Stearns) before.

This article also allows Sterns to return to a central question that prompted his thought-journey in the first place: Why does the food in this country continue to be so unsafe, despite all of the laws, all of the enforcement efforts, all of the food safety advocacy, and all of the lawsuits filed to recover damages on behalf of people injured and killed year after year. What follows, then, are additional and updated conclusions that thirty …

How Does Vertical Hydroponic Farming Compare To Traditional Soil Farming In Terms Of Crop Yield, Energy Efficiency, And Cost?, Grace Morgan, Grace Henry, Rebecca Meenach, Jeana Odom

Student Scholar Symposium

Vertical hydroponics (hydro “water;” ponics “labor”) is a method of year-round farming that uses water in place of soil and supplies vegetables’ nutrients in a space-efficient setting. It dates back to 500 BC when it was used in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a wonder of the ancient world. Thousands of years later, vertical hydroponics has expanded across the globe to supply leafy greens, herbs, and grains. It is typically implemented in dense urban environments where green space is hard to come by as a form of sustainable farming. Our research seeks to answer the question “How does vertical hydroponic …

Utah And Intermountain Farm Business Management Benchmarking Consortium, Ryan A. Larsen, Matthew D. Garcia, Jacob Allan Hadfield

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Improving Profitability Of Small And Medium Sized Farms Though Economic Optimization Of Wheel-Line Irrigation, John B. Barker, Ryan A. Larsen, Matt A. Yost

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Food Security Systems Change: A Case Study From Rural, Regional, And Remote Australia, Stephanie L. Godrich, Isabelle Chiera, Jess Doe, Saranne Herrington, Melissa Stoneham, Amanda Devine, Emily Humphreys

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Food security(FS) refers to having sufficient physical, social, and economic food access at all times. People living in rural, regional, and remote (RRR) locations often face distinctive challenges to FS. Existing solutions, that aim to enhance FS, themselves face challenges when addressing these issues. This paper outlines the application of an adapted Systemic Innovation Lab (SIL) approach to enhance the function of existing community and government-led, -run or -operated initiatives (programs, interventions) in RRR Western Australia. It examines which systems change characteristics participating initiatives possess, to identify opportunities to support their transition to newer and more effective ways of addressing …

Proso Millet In Us High Plains Dryland Agriculture: Systems Resilience, Phenology, And Consumer Preferences For Alternative Grains, Pratiksha Baishya

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Dryland crop production in Nebraska's semi-arid High Plains faces challenges from fluctuating weather impacts of climate change, including extreme temperatures, short growing seasons, and recurring droughts. Proso millet is an alternative crop used to build a more robust three-year rotation in the region, rather than the traditional two-year wheat-fallow cycle. This dissertation provides a systems-level assessment of proso millet, a climate-resilient crop with great potential to support sustainable cropping systems in the US High Plains. Using a field-to-consumer approach, it highlights its agronomic and environmental advantages in dryland rotations, develops a phenological framework to aid future research on production, crop …

Research On The Impact Mechanism Of The Development Level Of Smart Agriculture On Farmers' Income, Baoping Liu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Agriculture is a fundamental and strategic industry essential to national food security and farmers’ well-being. Faced with global population growth, climate change, and resource constraints, the traditional high-input agricultural model is unsustainable. Smart agriculture, empowered by IoT, big data, and AI, has become critical for agricultural transformation and sustainable development. However, existing research overemphasizes technical efficiency and neglects how smart agriculture systematically affects farmers’ income, especially its transmission mechanism and regional heterogeneity.

Against China’s rural revitalization and digital village strategy, this study investigates how smart agriculture development influences farmers’ income, using a hybrid framework of macro empirics and micro analysis. …