SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Chu, Mei-Chin; Swinton, Scott M.; Batie, Sandra S..

As contractual agriculture expands, contract design offers a non-regulatory opportunity to reduce non-point source pollution. A risk programming analysis of seed corn contract designs illustrates a tractable empirical principal-agent model, and shows that grower risk preferences affect contract acceptability and efficiency at reducing nitrate leaching.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION CONTRACTS TO REDUCE NITRATE LEACHING: A WHOLE-FARM ANALYSIS

Palavras-chave: Environmental Economics and Policy; Risk and Uncertainty.

Ano: 1997

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/11594

Chu, Mei-Chin; Swinton, Scott M.; Batie, Sandra S.; Dobbins, Craig L..

Ten alternative seed corn contract specifications are evaluated with respect to nitrate leaching and profitability for the processor firm (principal) and contracted grower (agent). A whole-farm optimization and feasibility analysis suggest that contract terms can be used to reduce non-point source pollution.

Alternative Land Use Policies: Real Options with Costly Reversibility

Palavras-chave: Crop Production/Industries.

Ano: 1996

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/11806

Song, Feng; Zhao, Jinhua; Swinton, Scott M..

This paper adopts a real options framework to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of four types of subsidies that aim to encourage a socially desirable land use under return uncertainties and costly reversibility of land use change. We first present a land conversion model to show how the subsidies that are expected net present value (ENPV) equivalent can change a representative farmer’s optimal land conversion rules differently for converting land into an alternative use as well as converting out of it. This is because these subsidies affect the land conversion costs, land return level and uncertainty differently. Then in the context of encouraging energy crop production, we compare the probabilities of inducing the representative farmer to convert land from...

ARE POOR FARMERS TO BLAME FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION? RESULTS FROM THE PERUVIAN ALTIPLANO

Palavras-chave: Monte Carlo simulations; Real options; Agricultural subsidies; Cost-effectiveness; Two-way land conversion; Agricultural and Food Policy; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; Q24; Q48.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/61510

Swinton, Scott M.; Quiroz, Roberto.

Links between poverty and natural resource degradation are examined in the context of soil erosion, fertility loss and overgrazing in the Peruvian Altiplano. Multiple regression analysis of 1999 farm survey data examines 1) what agricultural practices affect natural resource degradation, and then 2) what factors affect farmers' choices of those agricultural practices. Soil erosion and fertility loss appear reduced by increased fallow in crop rotations. Overgrazing and range species loss are affected by changes in herd size and rotational grazing. The effect of investment poverty on natural resource outcomes is not clear. However, social and human capital variables both tend to favor the choice of more sustainable agricultural practices. Natural...

As Ecosystem Services Are Demanded of Agriculture, What of Agricultural Economists?

Palavras-chave: Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/11627

ASSESSING ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT USING ECONOMIC SURPLUS

Swinton, Scott M..

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Environmental Economics and Policy; Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/27960

Swinton, Scott M..

This paper outlines the economic surplus approach to economic impact assessment and how it may be applied to natural resource management (NRM) projects. Three challenges confront NRM impact assessment: measurement, attribution, and valuation of non-market impacts. While various methods for non-market valuation have been developed, none has yet been integrated into a market-based economic surplus analysis due to problems of measurement and theoretical consistency. Future research should address those integration problems as well as the effects on valuation of inter-country income differentials.

ASSESSING THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT: LESSONS FROM THE PAST, DIRECTIONS FOR THE FUTURE

Palavras-chave: Resource /Energy Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/11668

Swinton, Scott M.; Williams, Mollie B..

This paper reviews the literature assessing the economic impacts of integrated pest management (IPM). Definitions of IPM are categorized as input- or outcome-oriented, and an outcome- oriented definition is recommended for public program assessment. The literature on economic impact assessment of IPM is divided according to focus on expected profit, profitability risk, environment, and health. Measuring diverse impacts on the environment and health poses a challenge, as does placing a value on those impacts. Evaluation of environment and health variables has been accomplished either by comparing individual attributes (multiple criteria approach) or else by constructing a weighted index (index approach), which may be measured in monetary or non-...

Biomass Supply from Alternative Cellulosic Crops and Crop Residues: A Preliminary Spatial Bioeconomic Modeling Approach

Palavras-chave: Crop Production/Industries.

Ano: 1998

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/11636

Egbendewe-Mondzozo, Aklesso; Swinton, Scott M.; Izaurralde, R. Cesar; Manowitz, David H.; Zhang, Xuesong.

This paper introduces a spatial bioeconomic model for study of potential cellulosic biomass supply at regional scale. By modeling the profitability of alternative crop production practices, it captures the opportunity cost of replacing current crops by cellulosic biomass crops. The model draws upon biophysical crop input-output coefficients, price and cost data, and spatial transportation costs in the context of profit maximization theory. Yields are simulated using temperature, precipitation and soil quality data with various commercial crops and potential new cellulosic biomass crops. Three types of alternative crop management scenarios are simulated by varying crop rotation, fertilization and tillage. The cost of transporting biomass to a specific...

Biomass Supply from Alternative Cellulosic Crops and Crop Residues: A Spatial Bioeconomic Modeling Approach

Palavras-chave: Biomass production; Bioenergy supply; Biofuel policy; Bioenergy; Cellulosic ethanol; Agro-ecosystem economics; Ecosystem services economics; Agro-environmental trade-off analysis; Mathematical programming; EPIC; Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; Environmental Economics and Policy; Land Economics/Use; Production Economics; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; Q16; Q15; Q57; Q18.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/98277

Egbendewe-Mondzozo, Aklesso; Swinton, Scott M.; Izaurralde, R. Cesar; Manowitz, David H.; Zhang, Xuesong.

Can Bt Technology Reduce Poverty Among African Cotton Growers? An Ex Ante Analysis of the Private and Social Profitability of Bt Cotton Seed in Mozambique.

Palavras-chave: Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Production Economics; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103435

Pitoro, Raul; Walker, Thomas S.; Tschirley, David L.; Swinton, Scott M.; Boughton, Duncan; de Marrule, Higino Francisco.

This paper presents an ex ante analysis of the private and social profitability of the introduction of Bt cotton for a major cotton producing area of northern Mozambique. Cotton is especially relevant to rural poverty reduction because smallholders often have few alternative cash earning activities, and yields are among the lowest in Africa. Multivariate regression is used to quantify the relationship between pest control and yield loss at farm level as a basis for estimating the expected yield gain from the introduction of Bt cotton. Partial budget analysis of technical packages with and without Bt cotton seed reveals a strong divergence between private (negative) and social (positive) profitability. The Mozambique case indicates that effective...

Can Dispersed Biomass Processing Protect the Environment and Cover the Bottom Line for Biofuel?

Palavras-chave: Bt cotton; Social profitability; Poverty reduction; Mozambique; Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; International Development; Production Economics; Productivity Analysis; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/51633

Egbendewe-Mondzozo, Aklesso; Swinton, Scott M.; Bals, Bryan D.; Dale, Bruce E..

This paper compares environmental and profitability outcomes for a centralized biorefinery for cellulosic ethanol that does all processing versus a biorefinery linked to a decentralized array of local depots that pretreat biomass into concentrated briquettes. The analysis uses a spatial bioeconomic model that maximizes predicted profit from crop and energy products, subject to the requirement that the biorefinery must be operated at full capacity. The model draws upon biophysical crop input-output coefficients simulated with the EPIC model, as well as input and output prices, spatial transportation costs, ethanol yields from biomass, and biorefinery capital and operational costs. The model was applied to 82 cropping systems simulated across 37...

Tipo: Working Paper

Palavras-chave: Biomass production; Bioenergy supply; Cellulosic ethanol; Environmental trade-off analysis; Bioeconomic modeling; EPIC; Spatial configuration; Local biomass processing; Crop Production/Industries; Environmental Economics and Policy; Production Economics; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; Q16; Q15; Q57; Q18.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/119348

CAPTURING HOUSEHOLD-LEVEL SPATIAL INFLUENCE IN AGRICULTURAL MANAGEMENT USING RANDOM EFFECTS REGRESSION

Swinton, Scott M..

Data on agricultural and natural resource management typically have spatial patterns related to the landscapes from which they came. Consequently, econometric models designed to explain the determinants of humans' natural resource management practices or their outcomes often have spatial structure that can bring bias or inefficiency to parameter estimates. Although econometric tools are available to correct for spatial structure, such tools are largely lacking for use with discrete dependent variable models. While one obvious solution would be to develop the necessary tools, an alternative is to identify conditions under which spatial dependency can be managed effectively without formal spatial autoregressive models. This study examines conditions...

CHOICE OF REGRESSION METHOD FOR DETRENDING TIME SERIES DATA WITH NONNORMAL ERRORS

Palavras-chave: Farm Management.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/11516

Swinton, Scott M.; King, Robert P..

Combining Supply and Demand Estimates for Ecosystem Services from Cropland

Palavras-chave: Research Methods/ Statistical Methods.

Ano: 1989

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/13954

Ma, Shan; Swinton, Scott M.; Lupi, Frank.

Payment-for-Ecosystem-Services (PES) programs are gaining appeal as flexible approaches to inducing the voluntary provision of ecosystem services (ES). Farmers, who manage agricultural ecosystems, provide important nonmarket ecosystem services to the public by their choice of production inputs and management practices. Although there exist various PES programs in the United States and Europe, we are aware of none that was designed based on a comprehensive understanding of the underlying supply and demand of ecosystem services. Taking advantage of unique, coupled datasets of stated preferences, this paper combines a supply-side cost function of farmers’ willingness to adopt practices that provide increased ES with a demand-side social benefit function of...

Compliance with International Food Safety Standards in Kenya's Green Bean Industry: A Paired Case Study of Small and Large Family Farms

Palavras-chave: Payment-for-Ecosystem-Services (PES); Contingent valuation; Aggregate supply and demand; Cropland; Eutrophication; Greenhouse gas; Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q11; Q51; Q57; Q58.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103501

Okello, Julius Juma; Swinton, Scott M..

This study uses two farm case studies to explore how Kenyan green bean farmers are meeting European food safety standards. For green bean farmers, the standards increase the fixed costs and the transactions costs of producing beans; the standards also alter how bean quality is assessed. Both the small and the large farm use contracts to protect their specific investments in complying with the standards. However, while the large farm invests in improved facilities using its own equity, the small farm uses a marketing group to spread investment costs and reduce the transaction cost to buyers of monitoring the performance of small units. Green bean buyers face the asymmetric information problem of creating incentives for farmers to comply voluntarily with...

Do International Food-Safety Standards Marginalize Poor Farmers? Evidence from Kenyan Family Green Bean Farms

Palavras-chave: Food safety standards; Farmer compliance; Transaction costs; Principal-agent; Economies of size; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/19241

Okello, Julius Juma; Swinton, Scott M..

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Crop Production/Industries; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/8546

Do Pesticide Hazards to Human Health and Beneficial Insects Cause or Result from IPM Adoption? Mixed Messages from Farmer Field Schools in Nicaragua

Labarta, Ricardo A.; Swinton, Scott M..

This paper analyzes the interaction between farmer training in pest management and effects on acute pesticide poisoning and populations of beneficial insects in Nicaragua. Using farm level data from Nicaraguan bean growers, including graduates of Farmer Field Schools (FFS), other integrated pest management (IPM) outreach methods, and farmers without exposure to IPM, we found that small farmers are influenced by pesticide-related acute illness experiences when adopting IPM practices and making decisions about pesticide use. However, exposure to IPM extension programs failed to reduce the use of highly toxic pesticides and increased the number of self-reported acute illness symptoms during the most recent bean crop season. IPM training did result in...

Does Human Capital Raise Farm or Non-farm Earning More? New Insight from Rural Pakistan Panel Survey

Palavras-chave: Ecosystem service; Integrated pest management; Agricultural extension; Nicaragua; Farm Management; Q16.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/19305

Satriawan, Elan; Swinton, Scott M..

This study explores how human capital affects farm household earnings using two tools to refine measurement of human capital effects. First, it employs a two-sector model to allow the allocation of family labor between farm and non-farm activities. Second, it accounts for village fixed effects to evaluate whether results from panel data differ meaningfully from a cross-sectional data analysis with local binary variables. The results show that education has a negligible effect on farm earnings; instead, experience appears to be the principal channel by which human capital affects agricultural performance in a traditional rural setting. Our results also suggest that prior models that fail to separate non-farm activities spuriously exaggerated the effect of...

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS APPROACHES TO POTATO-BASED INTEGRATED CROP SYSTEMS: ISSUES AND METHOD

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/19207

Labarta, Ricardo A.; Swinton, Scott M.; Black, J. Roy; Snapp, Siglinde; Leep, Richard.

In response to stagnating yields and mounting pest problems, Michigan potato growers are investigating ways to bring manure and cover crops back into potato production systems. The alternative systems bring benefits and costs for monetary net returns, the variability of net returns, and environmental impacts. This paper reviews the likely yield and biological system effects of alternative potato production systems that incorporate manure and cover crops. After briefly considering research designs for gathering experimental versus farm field data, it reviews four economic analysis methods for evaluating alternative systems. All methods are illustrated with examples. First, for evaluating comparative average profitability, it reviews a) enterprise...

ECONOMICS IN THE DESIGN, ASSESSMENT, ADOPTION, AND POLICY ANALYSIS OF I.P.M.

Palavras-chave: Crop Production/Industries.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/11677

Swinton, Scott M.; Day, Esther.

During the past twenty years, economics has played a key role in technology assessment and policy analysis related to integrated pest management (IPM) practices. The paper reviews economic analysis of IPM as applied to evaluating expected profitability, ex ante and ex post adoption, social welfare impacts, returns to research, and policies that affect pest management generally. In specific cases, economic methods have contributed significantly to the development of threshold-based IPM decision support software. Two areas that need greater economic input are assessment of biological pest management practices and the measurement of returns to research in IPM.