Improving nitrogen (N) use efficiency in crop production is important for obvious economic and environmental reasons. Nitrogen fertilization of corn usually provides the greatest return on investment of any crop input; therefore, farmers and their agricultural advisors must insure adequate N is available for the crop to maximize yields and economic returns. Soil contains N in organic (soil orga...

A method is developed to estimate jointly risk preferences and technology under general conditions. The approach is illustrated in an application to the analysis of U.S. corn-soybean acreage decisions over time. The results provide useful information on the nature of farmers' risk preferences and on the influence of price risk and production risk on acreage allocation and fanners' welfare.

A dynamic land use model, more speci cally a dynamic discrete choice model, is developed in this paper to model Iowa farmers' crop choice decisions in recent years based on the newly released eld-scale cropland data layers by National Agricultural Statistics Service. We explicitly consider the dynamic e ects naturally arising in the corn/soybean crop system and estimate the model using the cond...

a r t i c l e i n f o JEL codes: C61 C71 C72 O13 O21 Keywords: Biofuel Supply chain Land use Spatial market equilibrium MPEC The rapid expansion of the biofuel industry diverts a large amount of agricultural crops as energy feedstocks, and in turn affects farm land allocation, feedstock market equilibrium, and agricultural economic development in local areas. In this paper, we propose game-theo...

Corn is one of humankind’s earliest innovations. It was domesticated 10,000 years ago when humans learned to cross-pollinate plants and slowly turned a scraggly nondescript grass called teosinte into plump, productive modern corn (Figure 1). As needs change, so does plant breeding. Today, while biotech super-giants manipulate corn genetics to satisfy farmer desires and a global market, indigeno...

Increasing fertilizer prices and awareness of potential impacts of excessive or badly applied nutrients on water quality has renewed interest in fertilizer management strategies that reduce nutrient inputs or improve efficacy. Fertilizer recommendations for phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in Iowa and most states of the Corn Belt are based on soil testing and maintenance of desirable soil-test ...

The Midwest is reeling from an infestation of corn blight. Over 200 farms in Iowa alone have reported infections. Plant pathologists note that the pattern of infestation is inconsistent with a natural outbreak since the infections occurred in many places at once and were found in farms along major interstate highways. Scientists found that the infecting strain is identical to one found in Asia....

Administered commodity price schemes in developing countries have proved ineffective in raising farmers’ incomes and price stabilisation through futures markets is increasingly advocated as the alternative policy objective. A potential difficulty is that farmers tend not to hedge extensively, even in developed countries where access to futures markets is long established. Explanations for this ...

BACKGROUND Crops engineered to produce insecticidal toxins derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are planted on millions of hectares annually, reducing the use of conventional insecticides and suppressing pests. However, the evolution of resistance could cut short these benefits. A primary pest targeted by Bt maize in the United States is the western corn rootworm Diabrotica vi...

OBJECTIVES This study aims to determine (1) total dialkylphosphate (ΣDAP) levels, occupational knowledge and practice, DNA damage, AChE activity, and health symptoms in rice, corn, and double-crop farmers; (2) the association of health symptoms with ΣDAP levels, occupational knowledge and practice, DNA damage, and AChE activity in farmers; and (3) the prevalence of health symptoms between farme...