Governance and Deforestation Due to Agricultural Land Expansion

This article examines the effect of governance on forest cover in developing countries. We develop a theoretical model that explains how governance, particularly corruption control and politically stability, affects deforestation due to agricultural land expansion. The theoretical model shows the importance of the complementarity or substitutability of technology and land use in determining the effect of governance on agricultural land expansion and, consequently, forest cover. We complement the theoretical model with a structural empirical analysis to measure the effect of corruption control and political stability on deforestation in developing countries through two direct channels of deforestation: agricultural land expansion and road building. We find that political stability has a positive and significant effect on forest cover but corruption control has a negative and significant effect on forest cover due to increased agricultural land expansion.Deforestation, Governance, Corruption, Political stability

2010 Estimated Cost of Producing Hops in the Yakima Valley, Washington State

The enterprise budget provides estimates of production costs for a well-managed hop enterprise in Yakima Valley, Washington as of 2010. Three producer scenarios are presented to demonstrate how the enterprise budget can be used to evaluate situations in which the producer may find him/herself. An interactive Excel Workbook is developed and detailed instructions are provided to allow users to input their own data or make changes to the existing spreadsheets.enterprise budget, hops, Washington

Economic Impacts of the Elimination of Azinphos-methyl on the Apple Industry and Washington State

The Environmental Protection Agency has declared the organophosphate pesticide azinphos-methyl (AZM) cannot be used in the production of apples after September 30, 2012. We estimate the change to sales, price, and employment to the Washington State apple industry from using the likely AZM alternative had this ban been in effect in 2007. Furthermore, we estimate the effects of this ban as it ripples through the overall Washington State economy. We find the ban will bring a relatively modest change to sales (-0.8%), prices (0.2%), and employment (0.1%) in the apple industry, with negligible impacts on the overall Washington State economy.apples, azinphos-methyl, economic impact, computable general equilibrium

The Economic Value of Biochar in Crop Production and Carbon Sequestration

This paper estimates the economic value of biochar application on agricultural cropland for carbon sequestration and its soil amendment properties. In particular, we consider the carbon emissions avoided when biochar is applied to agricultural soil, instead of agricultural lime, the amount of carbon sequestered, and the value of carbon offsets, assuming there is an established carbon trading mechanism for biochar soil application. We use winter wheat production in Eastern Whitman County, Washington as a case study, and consider different carbon offset price scenarios and different prices of biochar to estimate a farm profit. Our findings suggest that it may be profitable to apply biochar as a soil amendment under some conditions if the biochar market price is low enough and/or a carbon offset market exists.Biochar, Carbon sequestration, Crop, Farm profitability, Soil amendment

Will Washington Provide Its Own Feedstocks for Biofuels?

The study finds that Washington State’s field corn, sugar beet and canola production could satisfy only a small percentage of the State’s annual gasoline or diesel consumption. Linear programming projections for 2008 showed a relatively close match between projected and actual production. Projections for 2009-2011 showed no increase in the State’s capacity to increase biofuel crop feedstocks. In comparison to crop feedstocks, Washington’s total annual lignocellulosic biomass is abundant. However, only a fraction of the biomass could be converted to biofuel due to high costs of collection and processing, competing markets for some biomass, and limitations in current technology.biofuels, biofuel feedstocks, canola, cellulosic inventories, grain corn, linear programming, Washington State

An Assessment of the Interaction between High Tunnels and Crop Insurance for Specialty Crop Producers

Protective covers, such as high tunnels, are being used by specialty crop producers to enhance production quality and yields, expand or growing seasons, and protect crops from some extreme elements. While growing in popularity, one barrier to larger utilization includes the uncertainty regarding their practices and benefits. This paper recognizes that high tunnels can be used as a form of risk management and examines the relationship with crop insurance in order to better define optimal risk management strategies.high tunnels, specialty crop insurance, risk management, Production Economics,

2015 cost estimates of establishing, producing, and packing Sweetheart sweet cherries in Washington

The results presented in this WSU publication serve as a general guide for evaluating the feasibility of producing Sweetheart sweet cherries in Washington State as of 2015. This publication is not intended to be a definitive guide to production practices, but is helpful in estimating the physical and financial requirements of comparable plantings. To avoid drawing unwarranted conclusions for any particular orchard, readers must closely examine the assumptions made in this guide, and then adjust the costs, returns, or both as appropriate for their own orchard operation

Environmental Regulation and Regional Economy: Economic Impacts of the Elimination of Azinphos-methyl on the Apple Industry and Washington State

The Environmental Protection Agency declared the pesticide azinphos-methyl must not be used in apple production after September 2012. We use this ban to contribute to the debate on environmental regulation versus industrial output. We use a computable general equilibrium model to estimate the change to sales, price, and employment in the Washington apple industry and the statewide economy had this ban existed in 2007. We estimate the ban decreases profit per acre by $101; changes sales by -0.8%, prices by 0.2%, and employment by 0.1% in the apple industry; but has negligible impacts on the Washington economy