Recent trend depicts that tomatoes and tomatoes products rank 2nd most important vegetable crop in the United States after potatoes and potatoes products contributing 20 percent of total vegetable production. More-so, tomato is equally ranked 2nd in the United States in terms of production...

The parameters of yield response functions can vary by year. Past studies usually assume yield functions are nonstochastic or ‘limited’ stochastic. In this study, we estimate rye-ryegrass yield functions where all parameters are random. Optimal nitrogen rates are calculated for two yield...

The “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act” was signed into law on June 22, 2009. The bill grants the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) an authority to regulate the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products. Tobacco leaf is not subject to the regulation. As a...

Drought is widespread in Sahel, and its persistent occurrence has caused substantial damages to the agricultural sector. The severity of drought and the related damages to the agricultural sector are expected to increase due to global warming. In this paper, I examine the economic impacts of...

This model evaluates the potential success of a cellulosic ethanol plant in Florida. Critical Economic factors of the plant were simulated to assess the ability of this project. These critical factors include the feedstock to be used, the cost of the facility, transportation costs and the...

This paper examines the introduction of energy cane and switchgrass in the available crops for production in the Louisiana Sugarcane Belt. Employing an optimal crop mix model net returns over variable costs for each county is maximized. Furthermore, this paper determines the optimal processing...

Stocker cattle grazing warm season perennial grasses is an important economic activity in the southern Great Plains. Substantial increases in the price of nitrogen fertilizer is negatively affecting forage producers’ profitability. Two alternative nitrogen management systems that use annual...

Revised version of the paper submitted 2/11/2010

No-till (NT) has been shown to reduce fuel, labor, and machinery costs compared to conventional-till (CT) but very few rice producers in Arkansas practice NT. The low adoption rate is most likely due to difficulties in management but also limited information on the profitability and risk of NT....

Farmland and capital are an important and rapidly expanding component of the agricultural economy, and empirical evidence suggests that these assets are quasi-fixed in that adjustment costs are incurred when holdings are altered. Increased interest in the rate of return for investing in farmland...