Conventional agricultural practices such as the use of the moldboard plough are no longer sustainable due to their extensive soil degradation effects. As a panacea, several Conservation Agriculture (CA) technologies have been promoted to improve soil structure and water conservation. However,...

Abstract Hoop house plasticulture has been promoted as a production technology that allows fruit and vegetable crops to be grown in the cool season months in early spring and late fall. At this time little information regarding the economics of hoop house plasticulture is available. Two fruit...

With the 2009 milk prices still fresh on everyone’s mind, there has been increased interest in ways to limit milk price volatility. Using SERF, this paper determined some dairies are willing to pay for limited milk price volatility and found a value they are willing to pay using risk premiums.

We theoretically examine a farmer’s coverage demand with area and individual insurance plans as either separate or integrated options. The individual and area losses are assumed to be imperfectly and positively correlated. With actuarially fair rates, the farmer will fully insure with the...

Multiple studies have estimated factors influencing cover crop adoption which include control weed population (Ngouajio et al. 2002), increased soil health (Santhi Wicks and Richard Howitt, 2005), and increased productivity (Johannes M. S. Scholberg, Santiago Dogliotti, Lincoln Zotarelli, Corey...

This study compares farm operators’ risk perceptions and actual realization of risk attitudes revealed through off-farm labor, enterprise diversification, and use of contracts, crop insurance, and other types of insurance, using data from 2001 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS)....

In this paper we analyze mortality caused by 2,194 large flood events between 1985 and 2008 in 108 countries. Unlike previous studies that looked at natural-disaster mortality, we find that year-to-year changes in income and institutional determinants of vulnerability do not affect flood...

Critical factors affecting risk and profitability for cattle owners under contract grazing include cattle weight at purchase and time spent on pasture and feedlot. Buying lighter animals and placing them in pastures before sending them to feedlot is the most profitable as well as least risky...

We used survey data collected from cotton farmers in 12 southern U.S. states to identify factors influencing cotton farmers’ decisions to adopt precision farming. Using a seemingly unrelated ordered probit model, we found that younger, educated and computer literate farmers chose precision...