AGRICULTURE AS A MANAGED ECOSYSTEM: POLICY IMPLICATIONS

One of the greatest challenges facing agriculture for the foreseeable future is to resolve conflicts caused by a growing competition for the services of the soil, water, and other natural resources on which agriculture depends-driven by growing demands for food, fiber, and for nonagricultural services these resources provide. To meet this challenge, research is needed which is integrated across the relevant sciences to better understand and predict the properties of agricultural production systems in all of the dimensions that have come to be represented by the concept of sustainability. If we were to achieve this capability to analyze agriculture as a managed ecosystem, it would be possible to move beyond the current regime of agricultural policies, driven largely by interest-group politics, toward science-based policies that recognize the tradeoffs associated with competing uses of natural resources.Environmental Economics and Policy,

ECONOMETRIC-PROCESS MODELS FOR INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

This paper develops the conceptual and empirical basis for a class of empirical economic production models that can be linked to site-specific bio-physical models for use in integrated assessment research. Site-specific data are used to estimate econometric production models, and these data and models are then incorporated into a simulation model that represents the decision making process of the farmer as a sequence of discrete or continuous land use and input use decisions. This discrete/continuous structure of the econometric process model is able to simulate decision making both within and outside the range of observed data in a way that is consistent with economic theory and with site-specific bio-physical constraints and processes. An econometric-process model of the dryland grain production system of the Northern Plains demonstrates the capabilities of this type of model.bio-physical models, integrated assessment, production models, dryland grain production, econometric-process models, Production Economics, C5, Q1, Q2,

PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC MODEL INTEGRATION FOR MEASUREMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL USE

Environmental Economics and Policy,

EVALUATING TELEMEDICINE IN RURAL SETTINGS: ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS

Changes in health care policies, demographics, and technology have presented new opportunities for the delivery of medical care services and information to rural communities. Telemedicinethe use of electronic information and communications technologies to provide and support health care when distances separates the participantsis one technology that has impacted the efficiency of delivery of rural health care services. This paper presents an overview of the telemedicine technologies, government involvement in support of telemedicine, evaluation efforts to date for these technologies, and issues that need to be addressed in designing an economic-based framework to evaluate the net benefits of telemedicine technologies to rural communities and consumers. An evaluation framework needs to be capable of quantifying the tradeoffs among access to health care services, the costs of delivery of a given level of services, and changes in the quality of the service that is being delivered via electronic communications; and how these tradeoffs shift as the level of telemedicine and the technology changes. The framework that is proposed is based on models of consumer behavior that incorporate discrete choices among quality differentiated sites.rural health care, telemedicine, averted costs, economic benefits, telecommunications technology, R0, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Health Economics and Policy, I1,

EVALUATING TELEMEDICINE TECHNOLOGIES IN RURAL SETTINGS

Changes in health care policies, demographics, and technology have presented new opportunities for the delivery of medical care services and information to rural communities. Telemedicinethe use of electronic information and communications technologies to provide and support health care when distance separates the participantshas significantly impacted the delivery of rural health care services. This paper presents an overview of the telemedicine technologies, government involvement in support of telemedicine, and issues that need to be addressed in designing an economic framework to evaluate the net benefits of telemedicine to rural communities and consumers. Federal and state governments have invested millions of support dollars in the form of equipment, infrastructure, and incentives for consumers and providers to expand the use of telecommunications in medical care. Since disbursement of these funds is already underway, it only makes sense to develop a method to determine both where and whether an additional dollar of funding for telemedicine development would be of the greatest benefit to society. If telemedicine can prove itself as a useful method for improving the likelihood of survival of rural hospitals, then, in the interest of rural development, it may be a technology worth investing in; i.e., the social benefits, measured as the sum of the private and public benefits, may outweigh the costs. According to its supporters, telemedicine systems have the potential to simultaneously address several problems characteristic of health care in rural areas, including access to care, cost containment, and quality assurance. Access can be improved by linking providers in remote areas with specialists in metropolitan centers or peers in rural areas. Telemedicine not only enables a wider range of services to be offered in the local community but may have the added effect of improving physician retention in isolated areas, one of the primary challenges in maintaining access for frontier medical centers. Telemedicine can promote cost containment through the substitution of lower-cost rural providers and facilities. Ideally, improved quality will be achieved by the ready availability of consultations and referrals. These are the potential benefits of telemedicine implementation, but they have not yet been verified by research in a field setting. An evaluation framework for telemedicine needs to be capable of modeling changes in the behavior of health care consumers (i.e., altered visitation patterns), recognizing differences in quality of service, and finally, quantifying the value of these changes. This is no small task, and obtaining the required data will likely require the cooperation of many parties, including health care providers, patients, hospital and program administrators, and policymakers. These are the same groups that could benefit greatly from a better understanding of how telemedicine technologies affect health care delivery, but a meaningful framework for analysis needs to capture the many aspects of telemedicine implementation.rural health care, telemedicine, averted costs, economic benefits, telecommunications technology, R0, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Health Economics and Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, I1,

OPTIMAL SPATIAL SCALE FOR EVALUATING ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRADEOFFS

This paper develops a conceptual framework that can provide a scientific foundation for formulating policies that consider environmental and economic tradeoffs. It addresses a critical problem recognized in the environmental sciences, namely, choosing the appropriate spatial scale for measurement and analysis of spatially variable economic and biophysical processes.scale, carbon sequestration, agriculture, economic policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization,

ECONOMETRIC PRODUCTION MODELS WITH ENDOGENOUS INPUT TIMING: AN APPLICATION TO ECUADORIAN POTATO PRODUCTION

In this article, a model was developed in which the quantity and timing of input and harvest decisions are endogenous. The endogenous timing model allows all of the information about input and harvest behavior to be utilized, and it provides a basis for linking econometric production analysis to the time-specific analyses in other scientific disciplines used to assess the environmental or human health impacts of agricultural production practices. The case study of fungicide use on Ecuadorian potatoes was conducted with a unique data set containing detailed information on both quantity and timing of input use. The results showed that both quantity and timing of chemical use were responsive to economic variables.Crop Production/Industries,

THE KYOTO PROTOCOL: ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF ENERGY PRICES ON NORTHERN PLAINS DRYLAND GRAIN PRODUCTION

This study examined possible economic impacts on Northern Plains grain producers of policies that could be undertaken by the United States to comply with the Kyoto Protocol. The paper begins with a discussion of the potential effects of the Kyoto Protocol on prices of energy and inputs used in agricultural production. The next section describes the data and econometric models that were used to develop a field-scale, stochastic simulation model of the crop production system typical of the Northern Plains. This model is based on econometric production models estimated with a spatially referenced, statistically representative sample of farmers in Montana. The simulation analysis shows that the impacts of higher energy prices would tend to discourage the use of fallow, raise variable costs of production by 3 to 13%, and reduce net returns above variable cost by 6 to 18% in the case of spring wheat grown on fallow, Under the higher cost scenarios assumed in an analysis conducted by the Farm Bureau, production costs for spring wheat on fallow would increase by 15 to 27% and net returns would decline by 15 to 24%.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

CONTRACTING FOR SOIL CARBON CREDITS: DESIGN AND COSTS OF MEASUREMENT AND MONITORING

Many firms anticipate that a cap on greenhouse gas emissions will eventually be imposed, either through an international agreement like the Kyoto protocol or through domestic policy, and have started to take voluntary actions to reduce their emissions. If agricultural producers participate in the emerging market for tradable C-credits, it must be possible to verify that actions farmers take do increase the amount of C in soils and this increase can be maintained over the length of the contract. In this paper we develop a prototype measurement and monitoring scheme for C-credits sequestered in agricultural soils and estimate its costs for the small grain-producing region of Montana using an econometric-process simulation model. Three key results emerge from the prototype framework. First, the efficiency of measurement and monitoring procedures for agricultural soil C sequestration depends on the price of C credits. Second, we find that at all price levels, costs of measuring and monitoring are largest in areas that exhibit the greatest heterogeneity in carbon values. Third, in a case study application of our prototype measurement and monitoring scheme, we find that if we assume similar error and confidence levels as forestry contracts, the upper estimate of measurement and monitoring costs associated with a contract that pays farmers per tonne of C sequestered is 3% of the value of a C-credit. This cost is small relative to the estimated net value of the contract. Thus we conclude that measurement and monitoring costs are not likely to be large enough to prevent producers from participating in a market for tradable credits.Environmental Economics and Policy,

ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURAL SOIL CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN THE NORTHERN PLAINS

Under the Kyoto protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change the United States is charged with reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to seven percent below their 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012. These reductions could be met from many industries including agriculture. In this paper, an economic simulation model is linked to an ecosystem model to quantify the economic efficiency of policies that might be used to sequester carbon (C) in agricultural soils in the Northern Plains region. Simulations with the Century ecosystem model show that long-term soil C levels associated with a crop/fallow system are less than those for grass alone, but that soil C levels for grass-clover-pasture are greater than for continuously cropped grains. The analysis shows that a CRP-style policy is found to be an inefficient means to increase soil C because the per acre payments to convert crop-land to grass-only draw land from both the crop/fallow system and the continuous cropping system, and costs typically exceed $100 per MT (metric ton) of C. In contrast, payments to adopt continuous cropping were found to produce increases in soil C for between$5 to $70 depending on area and degree of targeting of the payments. The most efficient, lowest cost policy is achieved when payments are targeted to land that was previously in a crop/fallow rotation. In this range, soil C sequestration appears to be competitive with C sequestered from other sources.policy design, economic efficiency, soil carbon, sequestration, valuing soil carbon, Great Plains agriculture, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q2,