Economic Sustainability and Multiple Risk Management Strategies: Examining Interlinked Decisions of Small American Farms

Economic viability of small farms and farming businesses depends on multiple factors. These farms have limited production and financial resources to maintain their operation. Therefore, to sustain farming, adopting appropriate risk management strategies is a pivotal decision for small farmers. We surveyed Tennessee’s small farms and utilized multivariate probit models to study factors influencing the adoption of various risk management strategies. Our findings suggest that the decisions related to the adoption of risk management strategies are significantly interlinked. Along with factors representing the operator’s age, education, and farm operator’s income and land holdings, we also found that the government incentives (payments), smartphones, and farmers’ continuation plan significantly influence the strategic decisions of adopting risk management strategies

Examining Farm Financial Management: How Do Small US Farms Meet Their Agricultural Expenses?

Small farms in the US have significant challenges in financial management. This study examines how small farmers undertake farm financial management to meet their agricultural and farm-related spending and expenses. Using primary survey data from Tennessee, the study investigates the factors influencing the extent of use of five financing sources to meet the spending and expenses: cash/fund directly generated from the sale of agricultural products, farmer’s past savings, farm household’s off-farm income, income/incentives from government payments, and external loans. Using negative binomial regression estimation of generalized linear models, findings suggest that the decision on the use of financing sources is significantly influenced in general by age, education, income and land acreage holdings, off-farm work, and risk factors related to farmer or farm household. However, the associated factors and their effects on the extent of use are different depending on the financing source

Rural Finance, Capital Constrained Small Farms, and Financial Performance: Findings from a Primary Survey

Capital and credit constraints limit the small farm’s ability to adequately use resources for optimum performance. Farmers’ access to capital is constrained in multiple ways, including price factors, risk factors, and transaction factors, as well as access to and ease of rural agricultural financing. Using a primary survey data of small farms in Tennessee, we analyzed factors influencing credit constraint and its impact on farm performance. Farm operators’ gender, off-farm work, land acreage holdings, farm specialization, and the use of smart phone with Internet significantly influenced credit constraint. We found that the financial performance of credit constrained small farmers was significantly lower than that of unconstrained small farmers—an adverse impact of constrained capacity to credit could result in up to $51,000 lower in gross farm sales. Additionally, our reason-specific results within credit constraint suggested that around$32,000 to $39,000 lower performance in gross sales can be attributable to the constrained borrowing with deficit to obtain agricultural loans at required or desired level

Adoption of Technology, Management Practices, and Production Systems in U.S. Milk Production

We examine U.S. dairy farmer adopter characteristics and adoption rates of eleven technologies. Excepting grazing, technologies were generally adopted complementarily. Four were used on higher percentages of farms in 2005 than 2000. The interaction of farm size with adoption suggests greater percentages of milk being produced under each, excepting grazing.Technically Complementary, Technology, Management Practices, Production System, Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics,

COVID-19 Pandemic, Climate Change, and Conflicts on Agriculture: A Trio of Challenges to Global Food Security

Global food security is a worldwide concern. Food insecurity is a significant threat to poverty and hunger eradication goals. Agriculture is one of the focal points in the global policy agenda. Increases in agricultural productivity through the incorporation of technological advances or expansion of cultivable land areas have been pushed forward. However, production growth has slowed in many parts of the world due to various endemic challenges, such as decreased investment in agricultural research, lack of infrastructure in rural areas, and increasing water scarcity. Climate change adversities in agriculture and food security are increasing. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected global food supply chains. Economic and social instability from the pandemic contribute to long-term disturbances. Additionally, conflicts such as war directly affect agriculture by environmental degradation, violence, and breaches of national and international trade agreements. A combination of food security and climate change challenges along with increased conflicts among nations and post-COVID-19 social and economic issues bring bigger and more serious threats to agriculture. This necessitates the strategic design of policies through multifaceted fields regarding food systems. In this comprehensive review, we explore how these three challenging factors, COVID-19, climate change, and conflicts, are interrelated, and how they affect food security. We discuss the impact of these issues on the agricultural sector, plus possible ways of preventing or overcoming such adverse effects

Household’s Perception and their Willingness to Pay for Pesticides-Free Fruits in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Kp) Province of Pakistan: A Double-Bounded Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation Study

This study investigated household’s willingness to pay (WTP) for pesticide-free locally produced fresh fruits in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A Contingent Valuation Survey Method (CVM), constructed with a double-bounded WTP elicitation format, was used to interview a randomly selected sample of 600 households. Survey data revealed that households were willing to pay on average rupees 26 more per kilogram of pesticides free fruits. Results from regression analysis showed that age of the household head and his awareness of pesticides use over fruits, household size and their total monthly income were significant determinants of their WTP. In addition, health concern and environment concern of pesticides use also influence the WTP. Findings from this study help in assessing the market potential for pesticides-free fruits in Pakistan

Adoption and productivity of breeding technologies : evidence from US dairy farms

Adoption and associated profitability of advanced breeding technologies are analyzed for US dairy farms. We account for correlation and selection associated with breeding technology adoption decisions. The bivariate probit model with selection is used to model adoption decisions and least squares with extended correction terms is used for profit, productivity, and cost equations. Results show that more specialized farms with younger, more educated operators having longer planning horizons are more likely to adopt advanced breeding technologies. Artificial insemination positively impacted farm profit and negatively impacted cost of milk production, while advanced breeding technologies positively impacted milk produced per cow

Assessing the impact of weather risk on land use intensity: A nonstationary and dynamic panel modeling approach

PRIFPRI3; ISISA