Korea replaced its rice import quota with a tariff rate quota (TRQ) in 2015. A structural model representing the Korean rice market is developed to evaluate this new trade policy and examine the possibility of Korean rice imports under uncertainty. Results indicate that rice imports in excess of the current TRQ quantity are unlikely for a range of market conditions. Two scenarios, which are the over-quota tariff rate reduction and the TRQ quantity expansion, show how the market responds to policy changes. In addition, Korean rice imports are sensitive to consumer preferences for different rice types.

This study connects Mexico’s imports of U.S. broiler meat with its imports of feed products. Two demand systems for Mexico are estimated: a two-stage Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model for broiler meat and a demand for feed derived from a translog cost function representing the production of Mexican chickens. The models are estimated using data from 1997 to 2016. Given a change in policy where Mexico completely replaces U.S. broiler meat imports, the imports of U.S. feed products will increase. If Mexico does not completely replace U.S. imports with domestic broiler production, our model suggests that Mexican imports of U.S. feed fall.

Empowering farmers to increase productivity by educating them on conservation agriculture (CA) could contribute to reducing vulnerability, alleviating food insecurity, and fighting poverty while being ecologically sustainable in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This study assesses the effect of a CA-promotion agriculture program. Findings suggest that location of the farm, training, having accessed credit, belonging to a farmers’ group, and being a vulnerable female all drove adoption to varying degrees and directions. Results also suggest that policy makers and CA practitioners should emphasize the ability that CA has to increase income and food security, which could widen CA adoption.

The farm-gate price of raw milk in Iran is determined annually in negotiations among representatives of dairy processors, milk producers, and government officials. This study estimates the average bargaining power of dairy farmers and processors, through applying the generalized axiomatic Nash approach in a bilateral bargaining model. We employ annual data from 1990 to 2013 to estimate econometric representation of a bilateral bargaining model using a Monte Carlo expectation maximization algorithm. Results imply a higher bargaining power of 0.69 for processors, compared with 0.31 for farmers. This asymmetry of bargaining power causes unequal allocation of gains in the milk market.

This article explores whether income underreporting for tax purposes can explain why the majority of U.S. farmers earn low or negative net farm income. Using 10 years of U.S. Department of Agriculture farm-level data, the extent of underreporting is estimated by exploiting the fact that farm households face an incentive to underreport farm income that varies with their reported off-farm income. Results indicate that 39% of total farm income is underreported. For large farms, the results imply a substantial discrepancy between reported and earned farm income. For small-scale operations, underreporting reduces but does not eliminate the gap between farm and off-farm wages.

The objective of this research was to evaluate producers’ perspectives of four key precision agriculture technologies (variable rate fertilizer application, precision soil sampling, guidance and autosteer, and yield monitoring) in terms of the benefits they provide to their farms (increased yield, reduced production costs, and increased convenience) using a best-worst scaling choice experiment. Results indicate that farmers’ perceptions of the benefits derived from various precision agriculture technologies are heterogeneous. To better understand farmers’ adoption decisions, or lack thereof, it is important to first understand their perceptions of the benefits precision agriculture technologies provide.

We estimate the values of bull phenotypic traits, performance measurements, and expected progeny differences (EPDs) over time using bull sale data from an auction in Tennessee from 2006 to 2016. Moreover, we determine how a state partial-cost reimbursement program for bulls with certain EPDs affects bull sale price. Purebred seed stock producers in this region should focus on selling large, fast-growing, mature bulls that produce lighter calves for reduced calving stress. The state cost-share payment did not significantly increase bull prices in most years, meaning this payment was retained by cow-calf producers in most years.

This study examines the price level and volatility interaction between international staple food and cash crop futures price indices. Understanding the relationship between these commodities bears significant implications for low-income food deficit countries that depend on cash crops to finance food import bills. We use a wavelet analysis to decompose the price indices and then apply a BEKK-MGARCH (Baba, Engle, Kraft and Kroner–multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity) approach to analyze the relationship across timescales. Results indicate the level of correlation and volatility linkages are strongest at lower frequencies (longer run) than at higher timescales (short run), with information running from staple food to cash crop markets.

The CIF NOLA “river market” represents an important but opaque forward market that serves Gulf exporters and elevators. CIF NOLA bids function similarly to traditional forward contracts; however, like a futures market, firms can offset their forward contractual obligations by offsetting positions in a liquid off-exchange paper market. Analysis shows grain sellers pay a risk premium for fall harvest delivery contracts. However, outside of fall harvest, contract liquidity, coupled with a good institutional balance of long and short market participants, mostly removes the pricing bias commonly found in farmer forward contracting in corn and soybeans.

Prevented planting provision in crop insurance protects producers from failure to plant attributable to natural causes. We determined the impact of this provision at various crop insurance coverage levels on prevented planting claims and ex post moral hazard. The moral hazard incentive in the prevented planting provision is stronger for corn than soybeans. Reducing the prevented planting coverage factor for corn could likely reduce moral hazard, but the degree of the reduction will likely depend on the revenue protection coverage level. Conversely, we found moral hazard is unlikely to occur for soybean production regardless of the revenue protection coverage level.

We investigate the dynamic evolution of the price discovery function in Chinese agricultural futures markets using a newly developed rolling window cointegration approach. The results show that, compared with wheat and rice, the futures-spot cointegration relationship in the soybean and corn markets tends to be more durable and frequent. Dynamic cointegration analysis indicates that the recent market-oriented reforms in China have boosted the price discovery function of soybean and corn futures markets, whereas price stabilization policies tend to weaken the price discovery function of futures markets. The difference in price discovery function is attributed to differences in market mechanisms and Chinese agricultural policies.

Cattle are costly to transport, which could lead to segmented regional cattle markets. The cointegration of cattle prices over regions has been of research interest for decades. This article investigates price cointegration between regional cattle markets in the United States and proposes a simple procedure for incorporating a flexible transition function into an economic indicator–controlled smooth transition autoregressive (ECON-STAR) model to evaluate market dynamics. The empirical results show that these markets have been highly integrated when excess supply exists, but when cattle inventories decrease, the market pattern becomes very regionally segmented.

We present a game-theoretical model arguing that greater public transparency does not necessarily lead to higher social welfare. Political agents can benefit from providing citizens with misleading information aimed at aligning citizens’ choices with the political agents’ preferences. Citizens can lose from being fooled by political agents, though they can mitigate their losses by conducting costly inspections to detect false information. Producing and detecting false information is costly and can reduce social welfare.

U.S. live cattle markets have experienced dramatic shifts in marketing methods over the past two decades, changing the way live cattle prices are discovered. We identify relationships between prices of the five major live cattle marketing regions using Granger causality and directed graph analysis. The two approaches complement each other and reveal that interweek and intraweek price discovery roles for given markets differ. Evidence indicates that Colorado, though a minor market in terms of relative volume, has become an important source of interweek price information to other markets.

Biogas created from anaerobic digestion on dairy farms can be used to generate electricity, produce coproducts, and reduce reliance on off-farm inputs. We incorporate risk into simulation models representing dairy farms in Texas and demonstrate the profitability of new anaerobic digester installation. Based on this market, results indicate projects that have low investment costs, receive grant support for construction, utilize coproducts, or have some combination of these factors have higher net present value at the end of the study period; however, even with generous grant support and high electricity prices, projects with average investment costs remain unprofitable.

A choice experiment was conducted concurrently with eye-tracking technology to examine consumer preferences for local and organic produce, notably effects of logo- versus text-labeling formats. We find consumers prefer local to nonlocal, but some consumers will pay a higher premium for logo-labeled produce compared with text-labeled produce. Additionally, we find evidence that a local logo tends to attract attention quicker and hold attention longer compared with a text label. The organic text label was preferred by some consumers compared with the USDA certified organic logo, even with though consumers looked at the logo longer and more often.

On May 29, 2013, the U.S. government announced that contamination of non–genetically engineered wheat supplies occurred. We provide a methodology to empirically assess the impacts of this contamination event on national prices and on farm-specific prices and receipts for spring red hard wheat. Results suggest that U.S. spring red hard wheat farmers in the aggregate had lost receipts ranging from $32.77 million to $131.06 million and incurred a drop of 3.83% in wheat price equivalent to $0.27 per bushel. At the farm level, a hypothetical farmer received $0.31 less per bushel culminating in $4,807 in lost receipts.