The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (FAIR Act) introduces several significant changes to farm commodity legislation. While these changes impact all program commodities, they have prompted considerable concern for the future of the Texas grain industry. Changes in the farm...

The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (FAIR Act) introduces several significant changes to farm commodity legislation. While these changes impact all program commodities, they have prompted considerable concern for the future of the Texas cotton industry. Changes in the farm...

The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (FAIR Act) introduces several significant changes to farm commodity legislation. While these changes impact all program commodities, they have prompted considerable concern for the future of the Texas rice industry. Changes in the farm...

The levels and risk-free nature of rice market transition payments associated with the FAIR Act of 1996 have encouraged many rice landowners to reconsider their tenure contracts. A methodology for comparing landowners' decision to "self-operate" versus "rent to a tenant" is presented.

The high levels of government payments to farmers resulting from the 1985 farm bill have once again led the Congress to examine the payment limit issue. Payment limits were initially established in 1970 and have since been revised several times. In this report, policy and farm management...

Texas is the leading U.S. producer of cotton, and the U.S. is the largest internationalmarket supplier of cotton. Risks and uncertainties plague Texas cotton producers withunpredictable weather, insects, diseases, and price variability. Risk management studieshave examined the risk reducing...

Conventional water treatment facilities are the norm for producing potable water forU.S. metropolitan areas. Rapidly-growing urban populations, competing demands forwater, imperfect water markets, and uncertainty of future water supplies contribute tohigh interests in alternative sources of...

This paper examines the optimal allocation of several inputs in the context of seawater desalination by reverse osmosis (RO) as a source of municipal (or commercial or industrial) water. A cost-minimization model is developed, a production function is estimated, and sensitivity analyses are...