THE EFFECT OF FEEDGRAIN PROGRAM PARTICIPATION ON CHEMICAL USE

Economic incentives created by the commodity programs are hypothesized to cause program participants to apply agrichemicals at greater rates than nonparticipants. Corn producers who participate in the USDA feedgrain program are shown to apply nitrogen, herbicides, and insecticides at statistically greater rates than those who do not participate.Crop Production/Industries,

AGRICULTURE IN AN ECOSYSTEMS FRAMEWORK

By broadening the definition of an ecosystem to include economic activities, can we better characterize the interactions and relationships among agricultural activities and important indicators of ecological system health? This paper addresses research approaches for assessing the role of agriculture in an ecosystems context. Environmental regulation and resource management policies have heightened the interest in understanding interactions among agricultural activities and the natural resource base, including the impacts of agriculture on environmental quality and the impacts on agriculture of ecosystem restoration efforts. What are the most meaningful indicators of environmental quality? Which agricultural practices and policies should be considered, along with which nonagricultural resource uses? Finally, does the evolving thinking about ecosystems permit us to link agricultural practices and policies more directly and meaningfully to conceptions of sustainability, of both natural and socioeconomic systems? This paper presents a brief synopsis of ecosystem management, drawing from several recent governmental initiatives. It then provides an overview of the economics of ecosystem management from the perspective of the role of agriculture; discusses two specific cases, the Pacific Northwest and South Florida; and concludes with a discussion of promising economic approaches, data needs, and caveats to those engaged in policy analysis involving ecosystem restoration.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Effects of Changes in U.S. Agricultural Production on Demand for Farm Inputs

The economic concept of constant returns to scale (CRS) may be too restrictive to give an accurate description of the agricultural sector. CRS assumes that a change in the level of agricultural production yields an equivalent change in the level of all inputs (such as farm machinery, labor, energy, land). The model used here, however, demonstrates that demand varies more for some farm inputs than others with changes in farm output, input prices, and technology, and that this effect can he calculated. The model uses a decomposition technique to show the effects of each of those changes individually on farm inputs

The Conservation Reserve Program, Land Values, and Asymmetric Information

Asymmetric information and learning contribute a significant impact on the value of enrolled land. In some regions values may have increased as much as $130 per acre with nationwide averages of$65 per acre. For the average value of all U.S. farmland the program may have offset an 8.5% decline in land values for 1986-87 by 0.5 percentage resulting in a measured decline of 8% for the year

The Conservation Reserve Program and Its Effect on Land Values

Some farmers enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in 1986 and 1987 may have earned more under the CRP than they would have if they had not enrolled in the CRP and had farmed or rented out their land instead. The difference in earnings may have resulted in as much as a 7-percent average increase in values for enrolled land. The CRP may have also cushioned the decline in all land values. U.S. land values fell 8 percent under the CRP between 1986 and 1987, possibly 0.3 percentage point less than they would have fallen without the CRP

How Technological Progress and Government Programs Influence Agricultural Land Values

Technological change mitigates the upward pressure on land values caused by growth in population and other factors by increasing the “effective” supply of land. Without technological change during the postwar period, land values would be substantially higher. Government acreage reduction programs, by creating an artificial scarcity of land, have counteracted some of the effects of technological change and placed upward pressure on farmland values

Model of Participation in U.S. Farm Programs

Voluntary participation in U.S. farm programs significantly influences the economic consequences of these programs. The voluntary nature of these programs produces two important considerations for policy analysis. First, program provisions designed to induce participation create distortions in farm production. Second, commodity and factor mark:~t equilibriums depend crucially on the actual level of participation. U.S. farm programs are designed to provide income transfers and affect market prices through supply control. The effectiveness of supply control depends on the level of farmer participation, which, in tum, depends on the expected benefits to participants. Therefore, to estimate the effectiveness and economic consequences of farm policy options, it is important to model program participation. This report presents a general equilibrium model of the U.S. farm and nonfarm sectors. The main features of the model include the depiction of participation by farmers in the programs, explicit modeling of agricultural program instruments, and capital investment