This study investigates the determinants affecting producers’ adoption of some Best Management Practices (BMPs). Priors about the signs of certain variables are explicitly accounted for by testing for inequality restrictions through importance sampling. Education, gender, age, and on-farm...

Markov chain analysis (one-step and long-run) is applied to the National Resources Inventory (NRI) database to evaluate changes in wind-based soil erosion rates over time. The research compares changes in soil erosion rates between NRI sample sites with and without applied conservation practices...

Over $1.7 billion has been spent on the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) since 1985. The purpose of this study is to show that these expenditures have aided the environment. Rather than quantify changes in environmental variables, a spatial econometric model is used to test if CRP enrollments...

Four policy alternatives for CRP lands upon expiration of the current contracts in Hale county, Texas are evaluated using chance-constrained programming. It was found that if CRP contracts are extended at the current average rental rate, 40 percent of the current enrollment would be expected to...

The objective is to identify significant determinants of performance for food processing firms over the 1992 to 2003 time period, focusing particularly on the issue of family control. Variables measuring firm effects such as asset size, governance, income distribution, and risk are used to...

Value-added centers have been established in many states. These centers vary greatly in objectives, operational structures, staffing, and funding. This paper uses examples of several centers and programs, with a specific emphasis on three centers, to provide a better understanding of value-added...

Mathematical programming-based systems analysis is used to examine the consequences of alternative operation configuration for the agricultural operations within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Continuation versus elimination of the total operation as well as individual operating...

This paper examines productivity of a sample of grain marketing and farm supply cooperatives from 1990 to 1998. The cooperative industry’s productivity or growth was mainly due to improvement in technology rather than improvement in pure efficiency or scale. The cooperative...