Determination of a Variable Price Support Schedule as Applied to Agricultural Production Control

Adoption of variable price support (VPS) schedules could be effective in controlling agricultural production and targeting program benefits to specific farm groups. The design of a VPS program would require determination of price schedules for farm-level production decisions that satisfy both farmer and program objectives. We applied a primal-dual mathematical programming model to the determination of a VPS program for production control of US corn, wheat, and soybeans. We show that government program costs under the VPS program would decline to $15 billion from $26.8 billion under a comparably scaled mandatory production control program. The program benefits to a 120-acre farm would increase 80 percent to $18,000 from $10,000 while the benefits to a 2,500-acre farm would fall 82 percent to $40,000.