Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T14:13:21.911Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Tobacco Farmer Interest and Success in Income Diversification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2015

Robert H. Beach
Affiliation:
Food and Agricultural Policy Research Program, RTI International Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, North Carolina State University
Alison Snow Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC
Janet A. Tooze
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC

Abstract

As farm income from tobacco production has declined in recent years, there has been increasing interest in identifying alternative sources of income for tobacco farmers in the southern United States The recent termination of the tobacco quota program has accelerated the exit of tobacco farmers and has heightened concern regarding the availability of substitutes for tobacco production. In this study, we examine factors influencing tobacco farmers' attempts to identify profitable alternatives to tobacco, their off-farm employment behavior, and changes in acres of tobacco cultivated using survey data collected from a panel of North Carolina tobacco farmers combined with market data.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altman, D.G., Levine, D.W., Howard, G., and Hamilton, H.Tobacco Farmers and Diversification: Opportunities and Barriers.” Tobacco Control 5(September 1996):192–98.Google Scholar
Bardhan, P., and Udry, C. Development Microeconomics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Brown, A.B., Snell, W.M., and Tiller, K.H.The Changing Political Environment for Tobacco—Implications for Southern Tobacco Farmers, Rural Economies, Taxpayers, and Consumers.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 31(August 1999):291308.Google Scholar
Bureau of Economic Analysis. Regional Economic Accounts. Internet site: www.bea.doc.gov/bea/regional/reis (Accessed May 12, 2005).Google Scholar
Capehart, T.Is There a Tobacco Quota Buyout in the Future?Agricultural Outlook 293(August 2002):1013.Google Scholar
Collins, K.Buyout Checks Would Go to a Few.” Raleigh News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), June 27 2004a):A1.Google Scholar
Collins, K.Leaf Buyout Tolls End of Era.” Raleigh News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), October 12 2004b):A1.Google Scholar
Environmental Working Group. EWG Analysis of House Tobacco Buyout Bill. Internet site: www.ewg.org/farm/tobaccobuyout.php?page=analysis (Accessed April 25, 2005).Google Scholar
Fernandez-Cornejo, J., Hendricks, C., and Mishra, A.Technology Adoption and Off-Farm Household Income: The Case of Herbicide-Tolerant Soybeans.” Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 37(December 2005):549–63.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, J., Gottschalk, P., and Moffitt, R.An Analysis of Sample Attrition in Panel Data: The Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics.” Journal of Human Resources. Special Issue: Attrition in Longitudinal Surveys, 33(Spring 1998):251–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foreman, L.F. Production Costs and Returns for Tobacco in 2002. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Report TBS-256-01, 2004.Google Scholar
Foreman, L.F. Production Costs and Returns for Tobacco in 2003. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Report TBS-258-01, 2005.Google Scholar
Gale, F.Tobacco Communities Facing Change.” Rural Development Perspectives 14(May 1999):3643.Google Scholar
Gale, H.F., Foreman, L., and Capehart, T. Tobacco and the Economy: Farms, Jobs, and Communities. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Agricultural Economic Report No. 789, 2000.Google Scholar
Golden LEAF Foundation. “Tobacco-Dependent and Tier 1, 2 and 3 Counties.” Internet site: www.goldenleaf.org/tcounties.html (Accessed April 20, 2007).Google Scholar
Goodwin, B.K., and Mishra, A.K.Farming Efficiency and the Determinants of Multiple Job Holding by Farm Operators.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 86(August 2004):722–29.Google Scholar
Hoppe, R.A., and Banker, D.E. Structure and Finances of U.S. Farms: 2005 Family Farm Report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Economic Information Bulletin No. EIB-12, May 2006.Google Scholar
Hull, J.W. Tobacco in Transition. Atlanta: Southern Office, Council of State Governments, Special Series Report of the Southern Legislative Conference, 2002.Google Scholar
Johansen, L.Substitution versus Fixed Production Coefficients in the Theory of Economic Growth: A Synthesis.” Econometrica 27(April 1959):157–76.Google Scholar
Jones, A.S., Austin, W.D., Beach, R.H., and Altman, D.G.Funding of North Carolina Tobacco Control Programs through the Master Settlement Agreement: Great Expectations Up in Smoke.” American Journal of Public Health 97(January 2007):3644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahneman, D., and Tversky, A.Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk.” Econometrica 47(March 1979):263–91.Google Scholar
Little, R.J., and Rubin, D.B. Statistical Analysis with Missing Data. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.Google Scholar
Mishra, A.K., El-Osta, H.S., and Sandretto, C.L.Factors Affecting Farm Enterprise Diversification.” Agricultural Finance Review 64(Fall 2004):151–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newey, W., and West, K.A Simple Positive Semi-Definite, Heteroscedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix.” Econometrica 55(May 1987):703–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center. “Employment in North Carolina.” Internet site: www.ncruralcenter.org/databank/trendprint_employment.asp (Accessed April 20, 2007).Google Scholar
President’s Commission on Improving Economic Opportunity in Communities Dependent on Tobacco Production While Protecting Public Health. Tobacco at a Crossroad: A Call for Action. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2001.Google Scholar
Royall, R.M.Model Robust Inference Using Maximum Likelihood Estimators.” International Statistical Review 54(1986):221–26.Google Scholar
Senate Agriculture Committee. “A Look at the Lugar Tobacco Buyout Proposal Contained in the Tobacco Bill.” Internet site: http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/51998Tobacco.pdf (Accessed April 20, 2007).Google Scholar
Shafir, E., Diamond, P.A., and Tversky, A.On Money Illusion.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 112(May 1997):341–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, I., Squire, L., and Strauss, J. Agricultural Household Models: Extension, Applications, and Policy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Smith, K.R.Does Off-Farm Work Hinder ‘Smart’ Farming?Agricultural Outlook 294(September 2002):2830.Google Scholar
Snell, W.Estimating the Value of Burley Tobacco Quota.” Lexington: University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Services, 2006.Google Scholar
Tiller, K.H.Tobacco Quota Buyout Update.” Paper presented at the National Tobacco Grower Settlement Trust Conference: Nashville, June 2003a.Google Scholar
Tiller, K.H.U.S. Tobacco Economic and Policy Outlook.” Paper presented at the Southern Agricultural Outlook Conference: Atlanta, September 29–October 1 2003b.Google Scholar
Tooze, J.A., Grunwald, G.K., and Jones, R.H.Analysis of Repeated Measures Data with Clumping at Zero.” Statistical Methods in Medical Research 11(August 2002):341–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tversky, A., and Kahneman, D.Loss Aversion in Riskless Choice: A Reference-Dependent Model.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1991):1039–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
USDA, NASS. 2002 Census of Agriculture, Volume 1, Geographic Area Series Part 51, Chapter 2, State Data, Table 1, State Summary Highlights: 2002. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2004.Google Scholar
USDA, NASS. World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates. Internet site: http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/waobr/wasde-bb (Accessed May 11, 2005).Google Scholar
White, H.A Heteroscedasticity-Consistent Co-variance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroscedasticity.” Econometrica 48(May 1980):817–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeger, S.L., and Liang, K.Y.Longitudinal Data Analysis for Discrete and Continuous Outcomes.” Biometrics 42(March 1986):121–30.Google Scholar