Volume 50, Issue 2, May 2025

May, 2025

Enhancing Decision Making in Livestock Risk Protection Insurance: Insights into Optimal LRP Contract Selection

By: Haviland, Logan B.; Feuz, Ryan
We identify optimal producer-selected coverage options across all marketing months and insurable commodities within Livestock Risk Protection Insurance. Optimal contracts are defined as those having combinations of coverage length and level that have historically provided the highest probability of a positive net return and the highest average net return. Using probabilistic modeling, we evaluate the effect of producer size on the likelihood of purchasing optimal contracts. Results indicate that (i) optimal contracts generally have relatively higher coverage levels, (ii) producers often purchase contracts not identified as optimal, and (iii) producers are categorized within two distinct groups when considering optimal contract selection.
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May, 2025

Enhancing Decision Making in Livestock Risk Protection Insurance: Insights into Optimal LRP Contract Selection

By: Haviland, Logan B.; Feuz, Ryan
We identify optimal producer-selected coverage options across all marketing months and insurable commodities within Livestock Risk Protection Insurance. Optimal contracts are defined as those having combinations of coverage length and level that have historically provided the highest probability of a positive net return and the highest average net return. Using probabilistic modeling, we evaluate the effect of producer size on the likelihood of purchasing optimal contracts. Results indicate that (i) optimal contracts generally have relatively higher coverage levels, (ii) producers often purchase contracts not identified as optimal, and (iii) producers are categorized within two distinct groups when considering optimal contract selection.
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May, 2025

An Ex Ante Analysis of the Effects of Climate on Agricultural Production Risk

By: Chavas, Jean-Paul; Zhang, Wei
We investigate the dynamic and spatial determinants of the distribution of agricultural productivity around the world, with a focus on the effects of climate on production risk. We treat weather shocks as part of the error term and proceed evaluating the probability distribution of agricultural productivity conditional on climate. The adverse effects of higher temperature are found to be more severe in countries exhibiting low agricultural productivity. The negative codependence across countries means that spatial diversification tends to reduce food insecurity at the world level. This effect contributes to dimming the adverse effects of rising temperatures on world food insecurity.
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May, 2025

Consumers’ Valuation for Local Foods: The Case of “Alaska Grown”

By: Zheng, Qiujie; Nayga, Jr., Rodolfo M.; Gao, Zhifeng
We use a choice experiment to elicit consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for lettuce with the “Alaska Grown” label, taking into account its interactive effects with the organic and hydroponic grown claims. We test whether providing information about local food benefits affects consumers’ WTP for the Alaska Grown label. The results show that consumers are willing to pay a premium for lettuce with the Alaska Grown label; providing information further increases their WTP. However, the information effect is limited or negative if organic or hydroponic claims are present on the locally grown foods.
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May, 2025

Pesticide Restrictions and Registration Delays: Implications of California’s Sustainable Pest Management for the Lettuce Industry

By: Hart, Jarrett; MacEwan, Duncan; Noel, Jay; Gunasekara, Amrith
Effective pest management ensures the safety and quality of California produce, protects producers, and maintains export market access. California’s new Sustainable Pest Management (SPM) framework targets removal of certain priority pesticides but also seeks to reduce economic risk to growers and activate new markets to drive SPM. Removing pesticide products from the registered list of allowable pest control agents increases the need for new pesticides. However, pesticides that are federally approved can be delayed for use in California by 1Ð3 years. We evaluate the economic implications of SPM and California’s registration process for lettuce.
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May, 2025

The Role of Communication Framing in Agricultural Climate Action

By: LŠpple, Doris
This article investigates effective communication strategies to enhance farmers’ engagement with climate change mitigation. Through an online survey experiment of more than 500 Irish livestock farmers, it examines the impact of message framingÑfocused on reputation concern or expensesÑon information engagement, knowledge, and intentions to adopt greenhouse gas mitigation measures. The findings reveal that while framing significantly reduces engagement with the information, it does not affect knowledge or implementation intentions. This underscores the complexity of motivating climate action, suggesting that advisory programs should employ positively framed messages to generate interest, despite challenges inherent in discussing climate change mitigation.
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May, 2025

Mental Health of PhD Students in US Agricultural Economics Departments

By: Zhang, Xi; Fang, Di; Nayga, Jr., Rodolfo M.
In this study, we investigate the mental well-being of agricultural economics PhD students at 33 universities in the United States. Analysis of our survey data reveals that about 40% of respondents reported experiencing symptoms indicative of depression, anxiety, or suicidal ideation. Although most participants recognized the meaningfulness of their work, achieving a satisfactory work-life balance emerged as a prominent concern. Notably, stress levels were consistent across departments irrespective of their rankings. Furthermore, our examination uncovers some racial disparities: Hispanic and White students exhibited a higher prevalence of mental health issues but were more inclined to seek treatment, while Asian and Black students reported lower prevalence but faced challenges accessing support services.
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May, 2025

Toward Rice Production Self-Sufficiency in Bangladesh: The Role of Plot Attributes, Farmer Characteristics, and Technology

By: Hasan, Mohammad R.; Paudel, Krishna P.; Regmi, Madhav; Bampasidou, Maria; Bhandari, Humnath; Devadoss, Stephen
We examine the interdependence of high-yielding (HY) variety adoption and farm and farmer characteristics to achieve almost self-sufficiency in rice production in Bangladesh. We use data collected by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Bangladesh, to estimate yield differentials, return differentials, and risk. We find that HY rice varieties contributed 61.34%, plot-specific attributes contributed 3.08%, and farmer-specific characteristics contributed 35.58% toward rice productivity. Additionally, adopting HY varieties resulted in a base return increase of about 154.03%. Plot-specific attributes had larger effects on the return model than on the differential yield model, while farmer-specific characteristics adversely impacted HY return gains.
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May, 2025

Impacts of Mexico’s Proposed Ban of Genetically Modified Corn Imports on Global Markets

By: Devadoss, Stephen; Luckstead, Jeff
This study analyzes the effects of the proposed Mexican import ban of GM corn on Mexican, US, and global corn markets. This import ban would have caused considerable trade reallocations. Mexico would have had to import from France, Colombia, and Indonesia to fill the void left by lost imports from the United States. In turn, the United States would have had to divert its lost export sales in Mexico to Japan, Colombia, South Korea, and itself. Because of these trade reallocations, Mexico would have imported from more expensive sources. The United States would have exported to distant countries. Welfare would have decreased in many countries, with Mexico incurring large losses.
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May, 2025

Wheat Export Restriction and Effects on India’s Domestic Prices: A Nonlinear ARDL Modeling Approach

By: Tripathi, Ashutosh K.; Mishra, Ashok K.
This study examines the impact of India’s wheat export ban on the domestic wheat market amid the 2022 food price crisis. Study uses nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) approach. Findings show an asymmetric transmission of changes in global prices to domestic prices in the long and short run under an open trade regime. The transmission elasticity for positive changes in world wheat prices is 53 percentage points higher than that of a negative change in world wheat prices. We found a symmetric relationship between the world and domestic wholesale wheat prices in the export-restricted regime. Export ban was not successful in curbing rise in wheat price increases.
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