Climate change with increasing climate variability is likely to alter risks in agriculturalproduction. The effectiveness of using weather derivatives to hedge against drought risks forrain-fed grain maize production was investigated for current (1981-2003) and future (2070-2100) climates in...

The U.S. Geological Survey has determined that irrigation in Arkansas’ Delta is unsustainable. This study examines how irrigation restrictions would affect county net returns to cropproduction. It also considers the effect of planting less water-intensive bioenergycrops—switchgrass and...

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To develop weather insurance, GROUPAMA builds a general model of agronomic crop yielddensity function. This approach is applied for cereal, industrial products, wine and fruits.From the density function, weather risk premium is computed. The wine-producing practicesdisturb our approach of risks....

Although significant research has been done on managing farmers’ financial risk through federal programs such as federal crop insurance, to date, little attention has been paid to the ability of on-farm management’s potential to mitigate agricultural risk. Federal crop insurance could...

Transgenic pest-resistant varieties are hypothesized to reduce farmers’ demand for on-farm diversity through an act of substitution, as both serve as production risk reducing instruments. This adverse agro-biodiversity impact of technology adoption might be partially counteracted by an...

This paper investigates the effects of network based individual social capital on the access of rural households to services. In the context of development economics, an innovative data collection approach is used to determine network based social capital. The approach originates from the field...

There is growing concern about the impact of climate change on agriculture and the potential need for better risk management instruments that respond to a more risky environment. This is based on the widespread assumption that climate change will increase weather and yield variability and will...