Agricultural Economics Commons^™

Financial Impact Of The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act On Ag Producers, Tina N. Barrett

Cornhusker Economics

The dust still hasn’t completely settled from the changes made in December of 2017 to the tax code by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), but we are starting to dig through the law to make some sense of what this will look like for ag producers. What we know for sure is that the changes are far reaching and complex. We also know that for most producers, the changes will result in a lower tax liability. The largest unknown is exactly how the new 199a deduction (20% passthrough) will need to be implemented. We are currently still waiting …

Socioeconomic Impacts Of Infrastructure Investment In Eswatini: The Case Of Lusip, Noussayma Njeim

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The 2016 Eswatini Vulnerability Assessment Report indicated that over half of the Eswatini population required livelihood support due to the severe El Niño drought. Since agriculture is the backbone of Eswatini’s economy, investments in climate change mitigation are needed in order to help protect the agriculture sector and associated livelihoods from increased yield and profit variability associated with future droughts. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) estimates climate change in Eswatini could reduce rain-fed agricultural yields by up to 50%, threating the ability of Eswatini to be food secure. As such, investing in water capture systems could help mitigate …

Toxic Effects Of Lead Disposal In Water: An Analysis Of Tri Facility Releases, Patrick Koval

Economics Department Working Papers

Using county-level TRI data from 2003 to 2016, I find evidence that lead emissions in water adversely affect birth weights within the emitting county, especially with respect to the percentage of births considered low birth weight within that county (less than 2,500 grams). I find that a one percent increase in lead emissions per square mile increases the proportion of low birth weights by 0.27 percentage points. For a county with an average number of births in a particular year, this one percent increase in lead per square mile translates to an additional $475,000 in hospitalization costs from complications with …

Factors Driving Sugar Cane Production In The Kingdom Of Eswatini, Brooke Danielle Anderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sugar cane is the largest industry in Eswatini with 16 percent of the total workforce working directly or indirectly in the sugar industry. Like all agricultural industries the sugar industry in Eswatini is heavily dependent on an abundant labor supply and climatic conditions. Labor efficiency and abundance is a defining factor of food security and profitability in Eswatini, having one of the highest national HIV/AIDS rates in the world. Small-scale sugar cane producers are often the hardest hit by HIV/AIDS as they traditionally rely on family labor more than hired labor. The 2016 Eswatini Vulnerability Assessment Report indicated that over …

The Relationship Of Male And Female Pastoralist Income With Household Food Security And Nutrition Status In Tanzania: Maasai, Sukuma, And Barabaig Ethnic Groups, Henriette Gitungwa

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

Although previous work provides a significant baseline for understanding the impact of gender on household decision making and resource (i.e. income and food) allocation, there are gaps in evidence for important groups, including East African pastoralists. Previous authors have noted that pastoralists’ gender roles and relations appear to be resistant to change, potentially impeding household development. This paper attempts to assess the relationship between male and female pastoralists’ income control and household food security and nutritional status in Tanzania. We use three surveys: a household-level livestock health and economics survey, a household food security survey, and an individual woman-level survey …

2018 Nebraska Farm Custom Rates Statewide Survey Summary, Glennis Mcclure

Cornhusker Economics

Many Nebraska agricultural producers hire custom operators to perform machinery services for their farms and ranches across the state. The 2018 Nebraska Custom Rates Survey Report summarizes the current rates charged for specific machinery operations and other on farm or ranch custom services. Prices paid for these services become more critical as profit margins tighten because of lower commodity prices.

Can Social Capital Boost Irrigation Capital: Empirical Evidence From North China, Yefan Nian

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using data from China Water Institution and Management (CWIM) survey, the study first constructs measures of all three most studied dimensions of social capital: trust, networks, and norms. The study then examines if social capital has any predictive powers of individual farmers’ contribution decisions as well as farmers’ contributions aggregated at the village level. Farmers’ choices between different forms of contributions (labor versus cash) are also analyzed. Our results suggest that all three dimensions of social capital explain farmers’ contribution decisions. Governance quality of local irrigation systems and the norm of cooperation have strong predictive powers of farmers’ decisions to …

Factors Influencing Adoption Of Conservation Agriculture In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Willy Mulimbi Byamungu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The agricultural sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is still struggling to cope with its post-independence political and structural instability. From 1961 to 2000, the DRC experienced a decrease of 34% and 37% in daily caloric intake and protein intake, respectively. The DRC’s agriculture sector, led by women (who are the core of subsistence farming), is now being targeted as a potential pathway out of poverty through sustainable development programs. Empowering farmers to increase productivity by educating them to use conservation agriculture (CA), a more sustainable alternative to the traditional slash-and-burn agricultural practice, could contribute to reducing …

Irrigation Management, Environment, And Profits: Who Wins?, Emily O'Donnell

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

The impact of irrigation technology on farmers’ management strategies and resulting environmental benefits depends upon agronomic properties and market forces. We evaluate the role of deficit irrigation using soil moisture probe technology on corn yield and evapotranspiration, which is a measure of water use efficiency. Evapotranspiration represents the water that transits through the plant during planting to harvest (transpiration) and the evaporation from the soil into the environment, or the displaced water in the production process. We develop yield and evapotranspiration response functions to inform a constrained profit maximization model used to identify the optimal irrigation level across a variety …

Agricultural Market Liberalization And Household Food Security In Rural China, Lia Nogueira, Kathy Baylis, Linlin Fan

Cornhusker Economics

Recent World Trade Organization (WTO) disputes have brought China’s agricultural trade policy back into the spotlight. In November 2008, China issued the nation’s first Outline of Medium and Long-term Plan for National Food Security (China Central People’s Government, 2008), in which they stipulate that the country will seek to stabilize the area sown to grain and achieve more than 95% grain self-sufficiency. Trade restrictions are argued to support implementing this plan because increased imports of grains and soybeans will lower prices, causing grain and soybean farmers to leave farming, thereby generating food insecurity (Wong and Huang, 2012). Others suggest that …

Point-Of-Sale Specific Willingness To Pay For Quality-Differentiated Beef, Kar Ho Lim, Michael Vassalos, Michael R. Reed

Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

Despite the growing interest of producers and consumers toward grass-fed, local, and organic beef, the supply chain for these products to reach consumers is not always clear-cut. Among the available options are direct-to-consumers and the conventional food supply chain. Although consumers may pay a premium for beef differentiated by quality attributes, the willingness to pay (WTP) difference across point-of-sales is unclear. In this study, we contrast the WTPs for conventional, grass-fed, local, and organic beef by brick-and-mortar supermarkets (B&Ms), farmers’ markets, and via online stores. We conduct a choice experiment with a nationwide online sample of American consumers. The findings …

Trade Wars, E. Wesley F. Peterson

Cornhusker Economics

Current United States trade policies are in line with an old economic doctrine known as mercantilism which calls for protectionist policies to reduce imports and expand exports with the goal of generating large trade surpluses. This doctrine has been discredited for over 200 years following the analyses of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and other late eighteenth- and early nineteenth century economists. Mercantilist policies by one country not only lower well-being in that country through harm to consumers and industries relying on imported inputs but also almost always lead to trade wars with that country’s trading partners. This is precisely what …

Role Of Information And Communication On Spatial Conservation Auction Performance: Evidence From A Laboratory Experiment, Simanti Banerjee, Marc Conte

Cornhusker Economics

Policy makers such as the USDA are interested in producers voluntarily adopting pro-environmental land use practices on their properties as these land uses deliver various ecosystem service benefits. As a result, they have implemented incentive based policies such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) (Hellerstein et al., 2015). The CRP involves a reverse auction in which producers submit bids for adopting different land use practices. In running these auctions, agencies are interested in both cost-effectiveness i.e. procuring land use projects which yield the highest level of ecosystem service benefits for the money spent and specific environmental goals. One key goal …

Joining The Dots On Ten Key Northern Beef Futures Informing Studies, Acil Allen Consulting

Animal production and livestock published reports

This report summarises findings from 10 completed first phase studies which were selected to:

• outline constraints and opportunities at specific points in the supply chain identified by NBF
• “joining the dots” in terms of what the NBF findings mean across the whole northern beef industry.

Salary Negotiation And Graduates From The Department Of Agricultural Economics, Larry W. Van Tassell

Cornhusker Economics

To better serve our students, one skill set that we as a department have considered incorporating more amply in our curriculum is negotiation skills. Negotiation can be defined as, “[a] give and take process between two or more parties (each with its own aims, needs, and viewpoints) seeking to discover a common ground and reach an agreement to settle a matter of mutual concern or resolve a conflict.” (http:// www.businessdictionary.com/definition/ negotiation.html) One of the first opportunities our students have to experience the negotiation process is in obtaining their first employment out of college and negotiating a fair market wage.

Is Aging The Important Factor For Sustainable Agricultural Development In Korea? Evidence From The Relationship Between Aging And Farm Technical Efficiency, Jun Ho Seok, Hanpil Moon, Gwanseon Kim, Michael R. Reed

Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

This paper examines the effects of aging and income subsidies on farm efficiency in Korea by utilizing the Korean Farm Household Economic Survey from 2008 to 2015. A stochastic frontier model with a non-monotonic assumption on the effect of efficiency factors is implemented to reflect a super aging and less developed production structure in Korean agriculture. This study finds continuously decreasing farm efficiency with age, which contradicts the commonly assumed inverted-U relationship between age and productivity. Especially, we find that labor is the most important factor to explain recent farm efficiency losses in Korea. Furthermore, this paper finds that the …

Thinking About The Corn Market, Fabio Mattos

Cornhusker Economics

It was twenty years ago today, in the late 1990s, that the United States was the dominant corn producer and exporter in the world, producing about 240 million metric tons (40 percent of the world total) and exporting close to 50 million metric tons (65 percent of the world total). Brazil, on the other hand, was a minor player in the corn market, producing approximately 25 million metric tons (4 percent of the world total) and exporting barely anything. Many changes have happened and we have a different corn market today. For the 2018/19 crop year, USDA projections show the …

Livestock Production Value And Economic Impact For Nebraska Counties, Glennis Mcclure, Bradley D. Lubben

Cornhusker Economics

Livestock production provides a significant economic impact in Nebraska. In 2016, 56 percent of all agriculture commodity sales in Nebraska were attributed to livestock and the industry accounted for over 50 percent of agricultural commodity sales each year since the 2012. This article provides an analysis of livestock production value and corresponding direct economic impact per county. The analysis estimates the direct economic impact of livestock production is $8.5 billion and the total impact of livestock production in Nebraska is $13.8 billion.

Analysis Of Potential Vermicompost Market In California, Jason Alan Thomas

Master's Theses

Vermicompost transforms agricultural waste into a high quality soil amendment, though market acceptance remains in its infancy. This study examines how growers’ willingness to pay for vermicompost is affected by grower’s crop, region, income per acre, knowledge level of vermicompost and compost, previous use of compost, and the willingness to pay for compost. The survey results pulled together 223 responses from California growers. It was discovered growers’ had less knowledge of vermicompost than compost but were willing to pay more for vermicompost. There was statistical difference amongst the responses. It was shown the market value per ton of vermicompost lies …

Consumer Response To Fraudulent Producer Behavior In The Agri-Food Marketing System, Syed Imran Ali Meerza, Christopher Gustafson

Cornhusker Economics

Over the last decade, food fraud scandals, such as the adulteration of Chinese milk with melamine, the discovery of horse-meat in many European meat products, and the mislabeling of Italian olive oils, have increased the attention of the media, consumers, and governments about the vulnerability of the food system to intentional adulteration or misrepresentation of product ingredients or products themselves based on economic motives (Lotta and Bogue 2015). Food fraud is defined as the intentional substitution, addition, tampering, or misrepresentation of food products for economic gains (Spink and Moyer 2011). Food fraud is motivated by economic gain and is enabled …