Many crops display differential geographic phenotypes and sensorial signatures, encapsulated by the concept of terroir. The drivers behind these differences remain elusive, and the potential contribution of microbes has been ignored until recently. Significant genetic differentiation between microbial communities and populations from different geographic locations has been demonstrated, but cru...

Over the counter (OTC) forward contracts are regularly traded by hedgers at maturities beyond the longest-dated futures contract. The presence of seasonality in agricultural commodities creates additional uncertainty for obtaining fair prices for OTC forward contract trades beyond the liquid futures strip. This paper employs an augmented Nelson-Siegel function to obtain seasonal agricultural co...

In this paper we develop a new model for the dynamics of forward curves of commodities exhibiting seasonalities, such as natural gas, electricity or agricultural commodities. In the existing literature on the subject, the first state variable in multi-factor models is the commodity price, which combines seasonal and stochastic features and may be unobservable. We propose to use instead the aver...

Heat quarantine treatments have been used for 70 years on a variety of fresh agricultural commodities and pests. Despite the high level of efficacy demanded of these treatments and the very low levels of infestation usually found in commodities traded across quarantine barriers, heat treatments have sometimes failed. Key differences between investigation and application which may affect treatme...

The rapid expansion of biofuel production has generated considerable interest within the body of empirical economic literature that has sought to understand the impact of biofuel growth on the global food economy. While the consensus within the literature is that biofuel emergence is likely to have some effect on future world agricultural market, there is a considerable range in the estimated s...

This is a review of current post-harvest entomology research conducted by the Agricultural Research Service, the research branch of the US Department of Agriculture. The review covers both durable and perishable commodities. Research on biochemistry, genetics, physiology, monitoring and control of insects infesting stored grain, dried fruits and nuts, and processed commodities is reviewed. Rese...

Discovery of the aflatoxins focused attention on an old problem and gave tremendous impetus to research on mycotoxins. This resulted in unparalleled collaboration of specialists in diverse scientific disciplines and brought to hear the most sophisticated tools and techniques. The chemical structures of eight afiatoxins have been established. Several have been synthesized chemically and their bi...

Political and economic reforms have been implemented for a number of years to alter the institutional, infrastructural and financial/economic environment in which Ethiopian agriculture operates. Changing the environment in which agriculture operates may be an intermediate goal; at the end, the question remains; have the new reforms and policies had the capacity to improve the performance of the...

This research is motivated by the unavailability of an information system that facilitates data processing agricultural land for rice commodities at Agricultural Extension Center Suluh Manuntung Lempake and delivery easily accessible in form a web regarding mapping commodities. North Samarinda sub-district center food crop agriculture most cultivated community rice, which has largest harvest ar...

Commodity prices are characterized by boom and bust cycles. In this article, the impact of the commodity boom of the 2000s on Latin American and Caribbean economies is studied by analyzing four categories of commodity exports (agricultural raw materials, fuel, food, ore and minerals) as well as manufactured exports. Latin American and Caribbean economies had higher growth during the 2000s than ...