Recent increases in fertilizer, particularly nitrogen, and fuel price have resulted in increased production cost for farmers. In this paper a farm level production model that compare uniform and variable rate fertilizer (NPK) application is developed that permits an analysis of the economic...

Replaced with revised version of paper 10/23/07.

The declining availability of irrigation water from the Ogallala aquifer combined with increasing energy costs make irrigation strategies much more critical. Irrigation strategies that maximize returns to irrigation require less water and achieve higher returns than strategies aimed at...

Index crop insurance products can eliminate the asymmetric information problem inherent in farm-level multiple peril crop insurance. Purchasers of index insurance products are, however, exposed to basis risk. This study evaluates the efficiency of various index insurance products to reduce farm...

This paper evaluates the feasibility of farmer-owned crop insurance accounts. The accounts, similar to retirement accounts, accumulate pre-subsidy premiums and dispense indemnities. Government involvement is that of guaranteeing loans if indemnities exceed the account balance. Substantial...

The paper uses a stochastic frontier analysis of production functions to estimate the level of technical efficiency in agriculture for a panel of 29 developing countries in Africa and Asia between 1994 and 2000. In addition, the paper examines how different components of an agricultural...

The potential of three feedstocks: grain sorghum, sweet sorghum, and switchgrass for ethanol production in the top 26 counties of the Texas Panhandle Region is analyzed using yield and production costs of feedstock, processing cost of feedstock, final demand for ethanol, farm to wholesale...

Management of tomato-spotted wilt virus is complex and requires more than one treatment for near optimum results. We investigated tomato and pepper growers’ perception on the effectiveness of tactics using Bayesian Logistic regression. The perceived chance that each tactics will control the...

This study focuses on development of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) for potato production areas in Northeast Florida, and presents the results of the initial situation assessment. BMP implementation is the primary strategy used by agencies and farmers to improve the efficiency and...