Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Aleksan Shanoyan / The purpose of this research is to evaluate and gain a better understanding of the economic feasibility of Kansas farmers growing energy sorghum for biofuel production. The net returns for 11 crop systems that included a no-till or reduced-till option and the rotations involved wheat, grain sorghum, dual-purpose sorghum, and photoperiod sensitive sorghum were simulated in SIMETAR© developed by Richardson, Shumann, and Feldman (2004) using historical data on yields and prices. The price and yield data originates from an agronomic study conducted in Hesston, KS. The biomass yields for the 3 varieties of sorghum are based on experimental work performed in Manhattan, KS. The sorghum biomass prices were obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service. Costs for the crop systems are based on the 2014 Kansas State University Herbicide handbook (Thompson et al. 2014), Dhuyvetter, O’Brien, and Tonsor (2014), and Dhuyvetter (2014). The net returns were simulated under five contract scenarios including: a Spot Market contract, a Minimum Price contract, a BCAP Price contract, and 2 levels of the Gross Revenue Guarantee contracts – 60% and 100%. Risk analysis was performed on the simulated net returns through use of the Excel add-in SIMETAR©. Stochastic efficiency analysis was used to evaluate the systems based on the distribution of net returns and risk preferences. The findings are summarized around three important factors influencing farmers’ economic feasibility of growing sorghum for biofuel use: crop systems, risk preferences, and contract specification. Results indicate that the no-till wheat and dual-purpose sorghum crop system without biomass production has the lowest costs and the no-till wheat and photoperiod sensitive sorghum system has the highest production cost. The crop systems that have a no-till option allow for the highest grain and biomass yields. Also, crop systems rotated with wheat are more preferred among producers due to higher net returns. The NTWDPS With system under the BCAP Price contract has the highest net returns and is highest in preference. The findings indicate that the risk aversion does affect the decision to produce sorghum for biofuel, but the effect is not very significant. In terms of contract specification, the results indicate that for Kansas producers, the BCAP Price contract will offer the highest net returns. These findings contribute additional insight on factors affecting Kansas farmers’ economic feasibility of producing sorghum for biofuel and can have important implications for biofuel industry actors and policy makers.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Hikaru Hanawa Peterson / Consumers’ food demand has been found to be affected not only by prices and income, but also by their increasing concern about factors like health benefits, animal welfare, and environmental impacts. Thus, many food producers have differentiated and advertised their products using relevant attributes. The increasing demand and supply of differentiated food products have raised questions regarding consumer preferences and producer strategies. This dissertation consists of three essays and empirically examines the egg market to shed light on related issues. The first question that this study aims to answer is whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for livestock and dairy products associated with improved animal welfare. Consumers’ attitude towards such products not only affect manufacturers’ production decisions, but also influence policy makers and current legislations. Using a national online survey with choice experiments, the first essay found that consumers in the study sample valued eggs produced under animal-friendly environment, suggesting incentives for producers to adopt animal welfare friendly practices. In an actual shopping trip, consumers usually need to choose from products with multiple attributes and labels. Studying how consumers with heterogeneous preferences process these information simultaneously and make decisions is important for producers to target interested consumer segments and implement more effective labeling strategies. In the second essay, a different national online survey was administered. The analysis using a latent class model categorized the sample respondents into four classes, and their preferences toward attributes and various label combinations differed across classes. Scanner data, which record actually purchased choices, are an important source of information to study consumer preferences. Diverging from the traditional demand approaches that are limited in studying differentiated product markets using scanner data, this study used a random coefficient logit model to overcome potential limitations and examine the demand relationship as well as price competition in the differentiated egg market. The third essay found that conventional and private labeled eggs yielded higher margins due to less elastic demand and cautioned producers of specialty eggs, which are usually sold at high prices despite their much more elastic demand.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / John Crespi / Hybrid seed corn pricing has increased significantly over the past six or seven years and continues to be a topic of conversation amongst farmers. This issue is also an area of concern for Monsanto. The hybrid corn pricing team at Monsanto is concerned that they price current products at a point to maximize profits while continuing to grow market share. The key is to price at a point that captures all the value of the differentiated products Monsanto offers. The objective for this study is to estimate a demand model for the hybrid seed corn industry. The demand model will allow us to look at many different aspects of the hybrid seed corn industry and also evaluate the own-price and cross-price elasticities. The own-price elasticity is especially important because it will be used to determine if current pricing is revenue or profit-maximizing. A hedonic pricing model was also estimated in this study to complement the demand model. It is important for Monsanto to understand what attributes or traits are significant in pricing and demand.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Michael Langemeier / This study focused on the inclusion of risk in efficiency measures to determine its impact on traditional efficiency scores. Previous research and theory suggests efficiency scores will be lower under risk and for risk averse individuals. Risk aversion may deter use of new production technologies and production levels may not be as high as under other risk preferences. Two data sets were used in the analysis. A panel data set of 256 farms from 1993-2010 was used to address the impact of risk measured as variability in outputs and downside risk on efficiency. A separate data set of 258 farms for 2008 was used with a corresponding risk preference score to determine the impact of risk preference on efficiency. The risk preference scores in the sample ranged from 5 to 86 where a smaller value represents stronger risk aversion. Data envelopment analysis was used to construct a nonparametric efficiency frontier and calculate cost- and revenue-based economic, overall, technical, allocative, and scale efficiency measures. Five inputs: labor, crop input, fuel, livestock input, and capital; and two outputs: crops and livestock were used in the analysis. The results focused on cost- and revenue-based economic efficiency. They showed that risk did affect average efficiency scores and is necessary to include in efficiency analysis. The average cost efficiency without risk was 0.6763. It increased to 0.7200 and 0.7018 respectively when cost efficiency was adjusted to recognize variability in outputs and downside risk. The average portion of cost inefficiency explained by variability in outputs was 28.06 percent. Downside risk explained 22.66 percent of cost inefficiency. The average revenue efficiency without risk was 0.7611 and increased to 0.8372 and 0.7811 when revenue efficiency was adjusted for variability in outputs and downside risk, respectively. Variability in outputs explained 42.53 percent and downside risk explained 30.58 percent of revenue inefficiency. The average cost efficiency for the 258 farms was 0.5691 and increased to 0.6043 with the consideration of risk preference scores. The average revenue efficiency was 0.6735 and increased to 0.6987 with risk preference scores. The efficient farms varied across cost and revenue efficiency, and the risk measures used. This lends support to the use of both input-oriented (cost) and output-oriented (revenue) efficiency measures as well as the use of multiple measures of risk.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Timothy J. Dalton / Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench is a drought tolerant crop able to adapt to hot and dry weather. It has excellent chemical and physical properties, which make it a grain of good quality for processing different types of products. This research is an impact assessment study that estimated the potential impacts of new uses of sorghum by using an equilibrium displacement model. The data used was drawn from interviews developed in July 2011. Using total quantity production, prices, prices elasticities and cost shares 8 potential market scenarios were simulated. Results between countries were similar. Thus, the analysis was applied for both countries. Producers gain when the sorghum flour demand is shifted between $6,000 and $ 30,000. When the feed demand curve shifted the producer benefit was between $3 million and $ 13 million. In the scenario where the sorghum grain curve shifted and the demand curve for feed and sorghum flour, producer net benefit is between $300,000 to $2.5 million. Interpreting these results suggest that increasing yield and promoting sorghum as a substitute of maize for feed and sorghum as a substitute of wheat for sorghum flour can benefit producers while helping them to increase yield.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / John M. Crespi / The objective of this analysis is to derive several econometric estimates of the Panzar-Rosse statistic of industry structure in order to determine whether the dried plums market resembles that of a firm collusion (monopoly or tightly structured oligopoly), a hybrid of monopolistic and competitive tendencies (monopolistically competitive), or perfectly competitive. The result of the Panzar-Rosse test is the H-Statistic: the sum of all elasticities of a firm’s total revenue with respect to factor prices focusing on the long run equilibrium. This study looks at data from a previous study conducted by Alston et al (1998) that includes firm level data for three of the participating firms in the dried plums industry from September 6, 1992 through July 7, 1996 and data provided from Sunsweet Cooperative encompassing firm level data from six firm participants from July 20, 2008 through June 13, 2010. Ordinary least squares regression equations were estimated to determine the elasticities of firm level input costs and other exogenous variables. A total of four regression equations per data set were tested in order to compile the necessary information for the formulation of the Panzar-Rosse H-Statistic. Adjusting for econometric concerns, overall the results show an H-Statistic commensurate with that of an industry that is operating as monopolistically competitive. In examining the evolution of firm-level changes from the time period of the first data set to that of the second, the results suggest the industry, while remaining monopolistically competitive, has also become more competitive; a finding consistent with the decreased concentration noted in the industry over time.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Glynn Tonsor / Accessing new management information is crucial for the effective management of an operation in any industry. Beef producers are no exception to this as producers are exposed to numerous risks. The use and implementation of new management information by producers can assist in managing the operation to limit a producer’s risk exposure. The beef industry in the United States today is comprised of a large number of small producers, and operations can be categorized into three segments - cow-calf, stocker/backgrounder and feedlot. Identifying and understanding the characteristics of beef producers assists in the effective design, development, and delivery of educational materials and new information. In 2008, a National Stocker Survey was conducted to collect data from producers nationwide on operation characteristics and production practices as they related to the stocking and backgrounding of calves. The survey was comprised of 10 areas which focused on all aspects of production during the stocker phase. Included in the survey was a section on communication and education, where producers were asked to indicate their level of trust for the 14 sources and 11 methods where by management information might be accessed. The primary objective of this thesis is to identify specific producer and operation characteristics that are key drivers of producer trust for a number of sources and methods where producers may access management information. The factor analysis procedure was utilized to determine the underlying common factors which represented the sources and methods that are used to access management information. Multivariate tobit regression analysis was used to determine the influence producer, operation, and management characteristics had on trust for the underlying factors which represent the sources and methods of information. Summary statistics from this research provide relevant information and show the average level of trust survey respondents have in the sources and methods included. While the models were unable to identify key producer, operation, and management characteristics that are significant drivers of trust, the results of these models do provide insights that may be useful in guiding future research. Producer trust for a number of the sources and methods will likely continue to shift as new technology continues to be integrated into the beef operations and new information is discovered.

This study analyzes the impact of the Program for the Certification of Ejido Land Rights and the Titling of Urban Plots (PROCEDE) in the framework of land tenure security and negotiability of agricultural land in six municipios of the State of Colima, Mexico. Current rural development in Mexico is framed within neoliberal development policies, in this case specifically, those contained in the reformed Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution. One of the principal goals of this current legislation is the removal of restrictions on transferring ejidal lands in order to broaden the negotiability of the ejido To comply with this mandate, the Federal State had to implement an ambitious land regularization program that included census of plots contained in ejidal structures and the provision of individual land certificates, communal land certificates, and a title for the Urban plots, as pertained for each case. This program initiated in 1993, and one of its conditions is that ejidatarios' participation would be voluntary This study is based on fieldwork in twenty-one ejidos in the State of Colima, Mexico. The universe of participants was two hundred and fourteen ejidatarios, both in a fieldwork-based survey, as well as case studies The analysis reveal that PROCEDE is considered a beneficial program overall, especially as one that has strengthened land tenure security on the ejido units. Not enough evidence was found to conclude that this federal program has improved negotiability of land This study, however, argues that the strengthening of tenure security through the issuing of individual land certificates is not enough to promote rural development, since land tenure regularization through certification is only one component in the myriad of needs for development of the countryside in Mexico / acase@tulane.edu

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Dept. of Political Science, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Feb. 8, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-05, Section: A, page: 1775. Adviser: Elinor Ostrom.

Carbon sequestration in small-scale farming systems in semi-arid regions offers the possibility to increase local soil fertility, improve crop yields, enhance rural people's wellbeing, and strengthen the resilience of agricultural systems while reducing CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere and, thus, contributing to climate change mitigation. A variety of management practices and land use options have been proposed to increase carbon uptake and reduce system losses. So far, less attention has been paid to local smallholders, the ultimate agents of anticipated community carbon projects, and the complexity, diversity, and dynamics of their livelihoods in a highly variable and risk-prone environment. A hybrid research approach, combining biophysical, economic, cultural, and institutional analysis, was used to assess the potential for soil carbon sequestration in the Old Peanut Basin of Senegal. In situ soil and biomass measurements provided current carbon accounts. Historic carbon changes and future sequestration rates under various management practices were simulated with CENTURY, a biogeochemical model. The simulation results well represented general historic trends and carbon storage potential. However, they did not accurately reflect variable and flexible site-specific management strategies as farmers adapt to stress, shock, and crises over time. To account for these, distinct pathways of agricultural and environmental change were examined in Wolof and Serer villages and viable options for carbon sequestration were evaluated. Systems analysis was used to explore the various components that influence farmers' perceptions, choices, and decisions with respect to land management. Results showed that resource endowment and institutional and policy incentives determine which carbon sequestration activities might be most appropriate for different groups of farmers. Finally, a cost-benefit analysis and a cash-flow analysis (using STELLA) were performed to assess the financial profitability and economic feasibility of proposed management strategies. The study reveals large differences in these measures between farmers with low and high resource endowments. In most cases, local smallholders are not likely to have the investment capital necessary to implement the alternative management practices. A farmer-centered approach to carbon sequestration, as proposed by the study, can be used to more effectively address the needs and capacities of smallholders in dryland carbon offset programs.