This paper examines the impact of price uncertainty on farmers' adoption decision in site specific crop management using an option value model. It shows that price uncertainty could lead farmers to delay the investment 3 to 25 years as opposed to the net present value rule. Immediate investment...

There is growing interest in biomass from perennial grasses (e.g. switchgrass and miscanthus) for bioenergy production because of their high yields, their potential to be grown on low quality land with minimal competition with food crops and, and their ability to achieve significant reduction in...

This paper analyzes the effect of landowner risk preferences and land quality on the optimal mix of vertically integrated production and contracted production of an energy crop in a region characterized by heterogeneity in landowners’ risk preferences and land quality and with riskiness of...

This study investigates the impacts of technology uncertainties and learning curve on investment decisions in the cellulosic biofuel industry. We find the future success of cellulosic biofuel may depend on the learning by doing effects rather than expected advances in conversion technology. The...

An over-parameterized statistical yield-switching-fraud model is developed. Over-parameterized procedures are reviewed. Five percent of 206,952 producers (thirteen percent in one state) have suspicious yield patterns, elect higher coverage, and increase total multiple-unit indemnifications up to...

We analyze the effects of crop insurance and the Marketing Loan Program on optimal nitrogen use and acreage allocation for a case cotton-sorghum farm in Texas. A mathematical programming model is used to simulate the optimal nitrogen fertilizer rate, crop acreage allocation, coverage level, and...

One of the key factors affecting the crop output is the rainfall volume. For this reason, insurance plans based on the rainfall deviation of the mean have been advanced. This paper provides prospects of rainfall-indexed insurance in Romania considering the tradeoff between moral hazard and basis...

Concerns about contamination of the food supply and the financial losses that would result have limited the promise of certain genetically engineered plants. This article addresses the situation by constructing an insurance pricing model to protect against those losses. The model first estimates...