Risk and Nitrogen Application Decisions in Florida Potato Production

This study focuses on development of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) for potato production areas in Northeast Florida, and presents the results of the initial situation assessment. BMP implementation is the primary strategy used by agencies and farmers to improve the efficiency and to ensure environmental sustainability of agricultural production. Although BMPs are defined as “economically feasible” and “cost-effective”, economic analysis conducted as a part of BMP development has been limited, leaving the room for disagreement about economic impacts of specific BMPs. As a part of the situation assessment, we used interviews, group discussions, a survey, and a field trip to collect information about farmers’ production practices and to examine farmers’ opinions about BMP development process. Then, partial budget analysis was used determine the relative impacts of various factors (including the implementation of nitrogen fertilization management BMP) on production returns. Finally, an economic model is proposed to incorporate production risk analysis in BMP evaluation process.Florida potato production, partial budget analysis, risk analysis, best management practice, nitrogen fertilization, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Production Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

Differentiation Theory over Infinite-Dimensional Banach Spaces

In this paper we study, for any positive integer $k$ and for any subset\ $I$\ of \QTR{bf}{N}^{\ast }, the Banach space $E_{I}$ of the bounded real sequences $\left\{ x_{n}\right\} _{n\in I}$, and a measure over \left( \QTR{bf}{R}^{I},\QTR{cal}{B}^{(I)}\right) that generalizes the $k$-dimensional Lebesgue one. Moreover, we expose a differentiation theory for the functions defined over this space. The main result of our paper is a change of variables' formula for the integration of the measurable real functions on \left( \QTR{bf}{R}^{I},\QTR{cal}{B}^{(I)}\right) . This change of variables is defined by some infinite-dimensional functions with properties that generalize the analogous ones of the standard finite-dimensional diffeomorphisms

Food quality and safety situation in Turkey: governance and barriers to success

The institutional environment for food quality and safety in Turkey is rapidly changing in the last decade but there are still some inconsistencies compared with the EU. High costs of establishing quality assurance systems (QAS), inefficient capacity of the institutional frame, unknown consumer attitudes, low level of production techniques and lack of awareness of producers and consumers are important weaknesses, when evaluating the current food quality and safety situation in Turkey. Whereas, rapid development of QAS, increase in consumer demands, harmonisation of legislation with the EU, increase in the research and incentives for quality production, and production potentials were determined as strong points. When analysing the socio-economic situation of farms, producers’ knowledge, perception and interest in quality with Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), it is found that producers did not accumulate capital because of the low profits, a handicap for expanding and investing into production and product quality. Moreover, the producers' knowledge is limited and their quality perception mainly focuses on food safety. As a result, academic studies and research projects needs to be extended and the adaptation of the Turkish legislation with the EU should be completed accordingly.Food Quality Governance, SMEs Barrier for Food Quality, Food Quality Assurance, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,