Farmers produce many things in abundance for which they receive income, including food, feed, fiber and fuel. Similarly, farmers generate environmental benefits such as improved water quality by reducing soil and nutrient loss and improved wildlife habitat by managing their operation in certain...

Although rice accounts for approximately forty-four percent of land under cultivation and forty-six percent of caloric intake in Madagascar, most farmers cannot produce enough rice to feed their families. Total rice production increased little in the country during the 1990s, and yields were...

The present paper describes the assumptions and modeling structure behind the SRA simulator, a user-friendly computer program developed in cooperation with RMA as a tool to assist policymakers in assessing the economic impact of the Standard Reinsurance Agreement. The simulator uses the...

Structural and technological change in American agricultural input markets has increased the influence of seed company supplied information relative to other information sources in farmers' decisions. I examine theoretically the incentives for biotechnology firms to provide reliable, useful...

Enterprise diversification is a self-insuring strategy used by farmers to protect against risk. This paper examines the impact of various farm, operator, and household characteristics on the level of on-farm diversification. Results provide evidence that larger farms are more specialized. Also,...

This paper develops a dynamic model of crop production under uncertainty with intraseasonal input choices. Crop production involves multiple stages, including at least seeding, post emergence fertilizer/pesticide application and harvesting. If the farmer receives new information about the output...

The identification of optimal management zones, including optimal uniform grid size, is a complex issue central to the successful implementation of variable rate input application. A novel economic optimization model is developed and applied that identifies the economically optimal management...

This study examines family farms and characteristics affecting farm succession. Based on a farm survey, three aspects of succession are analysed in the paper: the probability of family succession; the likelihood of having a successor designated; and the timing of succession. Large and specialised...

This paper investigates empirically the relationship between both farm business goals and sources of competitive advantage, and various farm and producer characteristics using new primary data collected from a survey of Ohio farmers. Results show that most farmers do not recognize sources of...

This paper examines factors affecting the role of individual, farm production, family finance, and regional characteristics in affecting labor force decisions by farm households. Young, more educated households are much more likely to work off-farm, suggesting that off-farm labor has become an...