PRODUCTIVITY IN U.S. FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

Productivity Analysis,

A Linked Model for Wheat, Feed Grain, and Livestock Sectors of the U.S.

Excerpts: The Forecast Support Unit must analyze economic questions from the perspective of their cross-commodity interactions. As part of this process, econometric models for a number of commodity subsectors have been specified and estimated. Up to this time the cross-commodity analysis has largely been achieved by iterating between the separate models using their impact multipliers. The major focus of this research effort has been to link the individual models into a simultaneous framework that solves wheat, feed grains, livestock, cotton, and soybeans. While soybeans and cotton have not been incorporated in this version, provisions have been made to do so as this research become available. The current report contains a list of the structural equations and variable names for the model and a set of key impact multipliers for selected exogenous variables in the system

Mathematics of Seasonal Price Behavior

Differential equations were used to derive seasonal price patterns for Korean rice under two behavioral assumptions("market conduct''). These were a competitive price rise equal to storage cost and the joint maximization of crop value plus storage profit. Compared with the competitive model, maximization virtually eliminates private storage and produces wider price fluctuations

Agricultural Parity: Historical Review and Alternative Calculations

Changes in the structure of agriculture and income distribution among producers make parity prices obsolete indicators of farmer well-being. This report chronicles the history of parity, surveys critiques of parity, and discusses changes that might reduce price distortions resulting from the use of the parity concept. Possible changes include adjusting the parity price formula by redefining base period prices and treating interest and taxes differently. New standards of equity, including cost of production, marginal social cost, and parity income, are examined

PRICE RESPONSE OF NIGERIAN PALM PRODUCTS

The oil palm has been the most important of the three major cash crops in the southern region of Nigeria. During the period 1955-1964, exports of palm kernels and palm oil averaged over 33 million per year, about 21 percent of the value of Nigerian exports in this period. This compares with the value of cocoa exports of about 32 million and the value of exported rubber of about 10 million. The other major agricultural export is groundnuts (peanuts), grown in the North, which averaged 28 million in exports. During this approximately same period the marketing boards, the sole buyers of exported palm products, performed primarily the fiscal role of assembling funds to support development programs. With the introduction of new information on the productivity of marketing board (development corporation) investment and the availability of alternative sources of revenue (petroleum), the beliefs underlying the old policies are being questioned. The direct implication of this is that new pricing policies should be considered

Agricultural Policy, Technology Adoption, and Farm Structure

The linkages among farm policy instruments, technological introduction and adoption, and the structure of agriculture are illustrated in an economic model. The model shows that policy merely delays, but cannot prevent, the consequences of technological advance. New technology permits fewer farms to produce more output at lower cost, and ultimately About the same per-farm profit, than possible under the old technology. Producer-preserving policies encourage more farms to adopt the new technology than the market will support and impose adjustment costs as these farms exit after switching technologies rather than directly leaving the sector. Exit annuity payments could facilitate the adjustment process at less than one-third the cost of current program instruments, and benefit both the exiting farmers and those who remain in business