Browsing by Author "Pease, James W."
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- Assessing Landowner Level Costs for Riparian Forest Buffer System Adoption on Farms in Virginia's Chesapeake Bay WatershedSmith, Clifton Lee Jr. (Virginia Tech, 1998-07-22)Riparian Forest Buffer Systems contribute to non-point source pollution control and improve the physical and trophic qualities of streams. There is a limited understanding of the full range of costs incurred when implementing a RFBS. Establishment costs will vary with the site characteristics. The amount of forgone income will vary with the current land-use. RFBS enterprises may yield returns that partially or fully offset forgone income. Section A discusses the physical characteristics and functions of RFBS in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Section A argues that RFBS design and site characteristics alter the physical ability of RFBS to produce environmental services. Altering design specifications may come at little environmental loss but might greatly reduce landowner costs. Section B describes a decision support system that can provide landowners and policy makers with financial information on the site specific changes in costs that occur as RFBS designs are altered. Section C utilizes the decision support system software to simulate the common design and site characteristics found within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed of Virginia. Generalizations are drawn concerning reduction efficiencies of a RFBS based on the physical characteristics of the regions. Section D discusses government policies and incentive programs, as well as additional private income opportunities, that may influence the cost and adoption of RFBS. Findings revealed a range of annual per acre cost of adoption between $140.09 rising to a positive return of $124.79, depending on assumptions of site characteristics, land-use, and supplemental financial incentives.
- An Assessment of the Quality of Agricultural Best Management Practices in the James River Basin of VirginiaCunningham, Janelle Hope (Virginia Tech, 2003-08-21)Assessment tools were developed to address the need for a low cost, rapid method of quantifying the quality of agricultural best management practices (BMPs). Best management practices are either cost-shared, where some or all of the capital costs of the practice were subsidized with federal, state, or local funds, or non cost-shared, where the cost of the practice and its upkeep is paid for by the landowner or farm operator. Cost-share practices are required to comply with state standards, while non cost-share practices are not subject to any standards. For this study, BMP quality is defined as the adherence to design, site selection, implementation, and maintenance criteria relating to water quality as specified by state and federal agencies promoting BMP implementation. The two objectives of this research were: 1. develop a set of assessment tools to quantify the quality of agricultural best management practices in a rapid low-cost manner, and 2. test the tools and determine if differences in quality exist between cost-share and non cost-share BMPs in the James River Basin of Virginia. Assessment tools were developed for sixteen practices: alternative water systems, stream fencing, streambank stabilization, grass filter strips, wooded buffers, permanent vegetative cover on critically eroding areas, permanent vegetative cover on erodible cropland, reforestation of erodible crop and pasture land, animal waste storage facilities, grazing land protection systems, loafing lot management systems, late winter split application of nitrogen on small grains, protective cover for specialty crops, sidedress application of nitrogen on corn, small grain cover crops-fertilized and harvested, and small grain cover crops for nutrient management. Assessment tools were developed using both Virginia BMP standards and expert knowledge. Virginia Department of Recreation and Conservation (DCR) and Virginia and national Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) BMP standards were collected and sorted into the four quality component categories; design, site selection, implementation, and maintenance. Standards that pertained directly to a BMPs' potential to protect water quality were translated into question format. Multiple-choice or yes/no questions were used as often as possible to avoid potential bias and for ease of processing. Assessment tool development involved an iterative process that included input from a research team (university-based researchers) and an expert team (public and private sector professionals and practitioners responsible for BMP design and assessment). One hundred and fifty-five cost-shared BMPs and 150 non cost-shared BMPs were assessed on 128 independent farms in the James River Basin of Virginia over a period of four months. The assessment tools were loaded onto a personal digital assistant (PDA), which facilitated data collection and eliminated the need for data transcription. Data collected on the PDA were uploaded periodically to a computer database. A digital camera was used to develop a photographic record of the assessed BMPs. Best management practice quality scores were based on five-point scale, with one being the lowest quality score and five as the highest. Statistical analyses conducted on both the overall quality scores and the quality component scores, indicate that there is not a strong significant difference (p = 0.05) in quality between the cost-shared and non cost-shared BMPs assessed for this study. Statistically significant differences between cost-share and non cost-share practices did, however, exist. For the filter/buffer strips practices (grass filter strips and wooded buffers), the implementation quality component cost-share mean (3.35) and the non cost-share mean (3.88) were statistically different at the 0.05 level (p-value = 0.026). One other statistically significant difference was found. For stream fencing, the overall quality cost-share mean was 4.68 while the non cost-share mean was 4.20; the means are statistically different at the 0.05 level (p-value = 0.043). Statistical analyses were performed to determine if age of practice, farm size, or Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) had effects on the BMP quality. No statistically significant differences (p = 0.05) were found relating to the age of an assessed BMP or farm size. One SWCD, the Robert E. Lee district, had a statistically significant difference in the design quality component means; cost-share mean = 4.21, non cost-share mean = 2.94 with a p-value of 0.048. The statistically significant differences that were detected do not establish a clear trend; it appears that for the BMPs assessed here the qualities of cost-share and non cost-share practices are roughly equal. The fact that cost-share practices and non cost-share practices do appear to be roughly equal may be the result of education and outreach programs sponsored by Virginia's SWCDs and Virginia Cooperative Extension. Non cost-share practices may be of equal quality to cost-share practices because those implementing BMPs without the benefit of cost-share may have a greater stake (both financial and personal) in those practices performing well. If no statistically significant difference in quality exists between cost-share and non cost-share practices, then non cost-share practices should be treated equally when accounting for BMPs in NPS pollution in watershed management and computer modeling. Currently, only cost-share practices are included in computer models, in part because these are the only practices tracked by the existing BMP establishment infrastructure. Estimating the numbers and distribution of non cost-share practices and incorporating them into NPS water quality modeling efforts will more accurately reflect the steps agricultural producers have and are taking to decrease the amount of NPS pollution reaching water bodies. Additionally, policy regarding NPS pollution and BMPs should reflect the apparent equal qualities of cost-share and non cost-share practices. The assessment tools developed as a part of this study can potentially be applied to determine the quality of BMPs on basin or state-wide scales to give policy makers a better understanding of the practices and populations that the policies are created for. Moreover, BMP quality scores have the potential to be used as a surrogate measure for BMP performance. Further research recommendations include correlating BMP quality scores with BMP performance, wider scale testing of the tools, continued revision of the tools, and using the assessment tool scores to diagnose BMP quality problems.
- Balancing competing development objectives in the Trifinio region of Central America: economic and social development and environmental protectionElias, Carlos Guillermo (Virginia Tech, 2008-08-04)This dissertation contains three related papers. The first paper revisits the concept of integrated rural development and provides examples on how to design balanced development work programs for the Trifinio region, a small rural region shared by 3 Central American countries. Work programs should balance 3 development objectives: economic development, social development and environmental protection. Finding a balance between these 3 competing objectives is difficult. The literature of Sustainable Development recognizes that policy makers often fail to balance objectives while the Integrated Rural Development literature points out the challenges of combining the objectives in a manageable project. We argue that, by focusing on identifying sources of economic friction and by accurately measuring tradeoffs using appropriate tools, we can design sound work programs. We present a toolkit that allows policy makers to identify sources of economic friction, measure their drag on the economy, and prioritize these sources so as to reduce the frictions that slow rural development. The toolkit contains 4 tools to assist in program design and 1 for implementation. GIS and building municipal indices of outcomes, household surveys, conjoint analysis and economic field experiments, are the tools that we have applied to design work programs in the Trifinio. In addition, balanced programs must be multi-dimensional in scope so we propose a tool that focuses on the institutional setup required for successful program execution. Finally we make policy recommendations and suggest additional tools that may also be added to our tool kit. In the second paper we create municipal indices of agricultural value of production, personal consumption and poverty in the Trifinio region of Central America with the objective of using them to guide investment priorities. Our indices synthesize information from the complex economic, social and geographic system of this region. In this respect we depart from established practices of estimating indices—for outcomes such as competitiveness—that select factors and create the index by adding them up. The established practice follows a normative approach because the index results from adding factors that should have an impact on the outcome. In this context the index author does not observe the outcome or the impact of factors; and does not know the functional relationship between factors and outcome. The author assumes all the information to create indices. Our methodology follows a positive approach and departs from the established practice because we estimate the outcome and identify factors that have an impact on it. To do it we use household survey and municipal level data to estimate determinants of agricultural value of production, consumption and poverty for the 45 municipalities in the Trifinio region. We then show how to identify municipalities in greatest need, identify factors of greatest impact on the outcome, and identify complementary activities. In addition we use GIS to develop a method that allows for the "generation" of missing agricultural-related data by extrapolating high quality yet limited information from a subsection of the region to the whole. The data generated has been validated in the field by agriculture experts thus confirming the legitimacy of this innovation. Finally we offer policy recommendations. The final paper presents an economic model of group formation with an application to data collected from an agricultural credit program in western Honduras. We formulate a simple theory of group formation using the concept of centers of gravity to explain why individuals join a group. According to our theory, prospective members join based on the potential benefits and costs of group membership, and based on their perception of social distance between themselves and other group members. Social distance is unobservable by outsiders but known by the individual: if you are in then you know who has blue hair. Thus, we argue that social distance helps explain preferences for group formation. To test our theory we analyze data collected from members and non-members of PRODERT, a program that has helped create 188 "Cajas Rurales" (CRs). Using conjoint analysis we test for differences in preferences between members and non-members for the main attributes of the CR. We find that members and non-members exhibit similar preferences for the attributes of the CR; therefore non-membership is not related to supply factors. Using information gathered by executing field experiments, we estimate a proxy for social distance. We use this proxy to run a group formation equation and find that it explains, along with individual characteristics, participation in the CR. Finally we offer suggestions on how to balance performance and coverage in programs in which beneficiaries decide who joins. Small cohesive groups may show exceptional performance at the cost of low coverage, and the opposite may be true.
- BMP Cost and Nutrient Management Effectiveness on Typical Beef and Beef-Poultry Farms in Shenandoah County, VirginiaDickhans, Megan F. (Virginia Tech, 2010-05-04)This study analyzes the change in whole-farm net revenues and nutrient reduction from the implementation of five best management practices (BMPs) on a typical beef and beef-poultry farm in Shenandoah County. Whole-farm net revenues, resource allocation, nutrient loss reductions, and the cost efficiency of reducing nutrient losses were analyzed to assess which BMPs are the most cost efficient to implement, assuming the baseline scenarios have no voluntarily applied BMPs. The effects of stacking additional BMPs, in combinations of two or more, were also assessed. No-till cropping, winter wheat cover crop, herbaceous riparian buffer, fencing, and P-based NMP were the BMPs that were analyzed. Incentive payments from state and federal governments were incorporated into the cost of BMP adoption. A brief analysis of a farmer's time value of money, with respect to incentive payments, was also conducted. Results indicated that no-till crop management was the most cost efficient BMP, and was the only BMP to increase net revenues for both farm models. Fencing and P-based NMP were the least cost efficient for the beef farm. For the beef-poultry farm, fencing was the least cost efficient. The implications of this study are that farmers that choose to adopt BMP should evaluate both their interests in maintaining (or increasing) farm net revenues along with their interest in improving water quality through the reduction of nutrient losses. There is potential for implementing multiple BMPs, while increasing net revenues from a farm's baseline scenario. For farmers and policy makers, no-till cropping can be a profitable and therefore cost efficient BMP to implement. Incentive payments are intended to encourage the adoption of BMPs by subsidizing a portion of the start-up costs. Policy makers should attempt to make cost-share payments reflect nutrient reduction goals. This can be done by analyzing both the compliance cost to farmers and the nutrient reduction effectiveness of BMPs.
- Closing the Loop: Public-Private Partnerships for On-Farm Composting of Yard WasteChristian, Archer H.; Evanylo, Gregory K.; Pease, James W. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2009-05-01)Explains strategies for building public-private collaboration, providing education, transferring technology, and for creating an efficient system of residuals delivery and compost production for communities seeking to implement composting as an alternative to current waste management practices.
- Economic Analysis of Recapturing and Recycling Irrigation Techniques on Horticulture NurseriesFerraro, Nathaniel Klug (Virginia Tech, 2015-09-22)The horticulture industry is facing limited water resources and public pressure to reduce non-point source pollution. In some circumstances, recapturing and recycling of irrigation water in horticultural nurseries can generate significant savings relative to the costs of alternative water sources and potentially reduce non-point source pollution. However, obtaining these savings may also incur substantial risk and capital cost outlays. Disease risk may increase in nurseries that implement recapturing and recycling if recycled water is not properly treated. These added costs must be compared with costs of alternative sources of water, such as municipal or well water. This study employed partial budgeting to compare irrigation water being extended or supplemented through recapturing and recycling against the most feasible alternative. On-site visits were conducted to obtain information for partial budgets and to clarify the reasoning of nurseries choosing to recycle irrigation water. The partial budgets were supplemented with sensitivity analysis with regard to the extraction cost of water and opportunity cost of land used for recapture of water. Six of eight nurseries obtained water from recapturing and recycling at a lower cost compared to a feasible alternative source. The regrading of land for maximum recapture, opportunity cost of land dedicated to a recapture pond, and the cost of municipal water were parameters that were critical to the irrigation choice. Sensitivity analysis indicated that water price and land cost had little effect on the least cost option. Irrigation recycling could be incentivized to motivate further water conservation within the horticulture industry.
- Essays on the Economics of Drinking Water Quality and InfrastructureTanellari, Eftila (Virginia Tech, 2011-04-29)This dissertation consists of three essays that examine consumer behavior with respect to drinking water quality issues. The first essay uses contingent valuation method to explore consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for a hypothetical material in home drinking water infrastructure that will remain leak free. Willingness to pay is investigated using both dichotomous choice and dichotomous choice with follow-up formats using a national telephone survey of consumers. Our results indicate that consumers' concerns about future system failures and income positively affect their WTP for an improved material while satisfaction with the water quality, education and the bid amount asked negatively affect their WTP for an improved material. There are no significant differences in the determinants of WTP between respondents who have experienced problems with home water infrastructure and respondents who have not. Furthermore, the estimated mean WTP does not change significantly between the dichotomous choice questioning format and the dichotomous choice with follow-up format The second essay investigates the determinants of consumers' willingness to accept improvement programs for three drinking water issues: water quality, pinhole leaks in home plumbing infrastructure and aging public infrastructure. The research is based on a mail survey of consumers in Northern Virginia and the Maryland suburbs of Washington D.C. The analysis focuses on the relationship between information, risk perceptions and willingness to pay. Results indicate that the choice to support any of the programs is negatively affected by the cost of the proposed improvement. Consumers' risk perceptions, the external information provided in the survey and whether they read the annual report from their water utility affect their choices for investment in improvement programs. The third essay examines the effect of risk perceptions about tap water, general risk aversion and consumers' characteristics on their decision to avert drinking water risks and related expenditures. Results are based on the same survey data from the second study. The risk aversion measure is elicited using the sequence of questions employed in the National Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Results indicate that consumers' risk perceptions affect both the decision to avert and the amount spent on averting activities. However, we do not find a significant impact of risk aversion on averting behavior. In addition we find that respondents were more likely to use water treatments if they were unsatisfied with their tap water or had problems or concerns with water odor and particles.
- Financial Performance of Pasture-Based Dairies: A Virginia Case StudyGroover, Gordon E. (Virginia Tech, 2001-04-02)Virginia dairy producers are considering intensive grazing as a profitable and ecologically viable alternative to confinement dairy production. The objective of this study is to compare financial performance for pasture-based dairy farms relative to similar resourced-based confinement farms. Comparisons are based on the recommended financial and profitability measures of performance provided by the Farm Financial Standards Council. Primary and secondary data plus simulation of daily pasture supply and animal demands are used to develop 100 and 200-cow farms with a land base representative of the Ridge and Valley regions of Virginia. Representative farms were developed to explore financial performance based on the intensity of pasture use, from total confinement to seasonal farms using intensive grazing (in which pasture, hay, and energy supplements are the only sources of nutrients for all dairy animals on the farm). Results of the analysis demonstrate that pasture-based seasonal production is more profitable and has a higher level of repayment capacity and financial efficiency than all other production systems in this study. Greater financial performance by the seasonal farms is obtained even though such farms obtain lower average annual milk prices and 10 percent less milk sold per cow than the similar confinement farms. Pasture-based farms that feed a partial total mixed ration during the summer (25 percent of ration dry matter and 45 percent of ration dry matter from pasture) have fewer financial advantages than the seasonal farms. However, their performance exceeds that of the confinement farms and intensive pasture-based farms milking year round. The intensive pasture-based farms milking year round are the poorest financial performers. Additional conclusions for this study are: 1) the 100-cow farms exhibit insufficient financial performance to provide for family living, debt service (at 40 percent debt to equity ratio), and a cushion for events such as droughts or declines in milk prices; and 2) financial performance of the 200-cow dairies is better, yet the added income from a member of the farm having off-farm income will provide a cushion against unforeseen production and financial risks. Follow up research should address the interface of three issues; stocking rates, farm profitability, and environmental compliance.
- Horticultural Growers’ Willingness To Adopt Recycling Of Irrigation WaterCultice, Alyssa; Bosch, Darrell J.; Pease, James W.; Boyle, Kevin J.; Xu, Weibin (Cambridge University Press, 2016)Recycling irrigation water can provide water during periods of drought for horticulture operations and can reduce nonpoint-source pollution, but water recycling increases production costs and can increase risk of disease infestation from waterborne pathogens such as Pythium and Phytophthora. This study of water recycling adoption by horticultural growers in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania finds that the potential for increased disease infestation would reduce growers’ probability of adopting water recycling. Widespread adoption of recycling irrigation water would require government incentives or coercion or growers’ ability to pass cost increases on to customers.
- Horticultural Producers' Willingness to Adopt Water Recycling Technology in the Mid-Atlantic RegionCultice, Alyssa Kristine (Virginia Tech, 2013-07-30)Water-recycling technologies have been developed to reduce water consumption and surface runoff in horticultural operations. However, WRT may increase risk of disease from water-borne pathogens such as Pythium and Phytophthora. More information is needed about producers' management practices and attitudes regarding irrigation runoff containment and recycling. A mail survey was administered in February 2013 to horticultural nursery growers in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Collected were respondents' demographic characteristics plus irrigation and disease management practices. The survey incorporated a choice experiment quantifying willingness to adopt water recycling given hypothetical disease outbreak, water shortage probabilities, and percentage cost increases via a conditional logit model. Two hundred and sixty respondents provide valuable insight into horticultural production in the Mid-Atlantic region. We were unable to calculate the implicit price of water or disease for adoption because the sample of 91 respondents for the choice experiment yielded a flat distribution of operations ranging in $100 to $7 million in nursery cost. However, findings did support the hypothesis that producers will be more likely to adopt selected WRT when cost decreases, probability of disease decreases. Only 33% chose to adopt. Cost is the biggest factor as the majority of producers are not equipped to handle water recycling or capture and would go out of business due to the expense. Disease is also significant factor inhibiting growers from adopting. Until mandatory environmental regulations in place to force producers to contain runoff, or until incentivized cost sharing programs are implemented, wide spread adoption of water recycling technologies is unlikely to occur.
- Improving Nitrogen Management in Corn- Wheat-Soybean Rotations Using Site Specific Management in Eastern VirginiaPeng, Wei (Virginia Tech, 2001-09-21)Nitrogen (N) is a key nutrient input to crops and one of the major pollutants to the environment from agriculture in the United States. Recent developments in site-specific management (SSM) technology have the potential to reduce both N overapplication and underapplication and increase farmers' net returns. In Virginia, due to the high variability of within-field yield-limiting factors such as soil physical properties and fertility, the adoption of SSM is hindered by high gridsampling cost. Many Virginia corn-wheat-soybean farms have practiced generating yield maps using yield monitors for several years even though few variable applications based on yield maps were reported. It is unknown if the information generated by yield monitors under actual production situations can be used to direct N management for increased net returns in this area. The overall objective of the study is to analyze the economic and environmental impact of alternative management strategies for N in corn and wheat production based on site-specific information in eastern Virginia. Specifically, evaluations were made of three levels of site-specific information regarding crop N requirements combined with variable and uniform N application. The three levels of information are information about the yield potential of the predominant soil type within the field, information about yield potentials of all soils within the field (soil zones), information about yield potentials of smaller sub-field units which are aggregated into functional zones. Effects of information on expected net returns and net N (applied N that is not removed by the crop) were evaluated for corn-wheat-soybean fields in eastern Virginia. Ex post and ex ante evaluations of information were carried out. Historical weather data and farm-level yield data were used to generate yield sequences for individual fields. A Markov chain model was used to describe both temporal and spatial yield variation. Soil maps were used to divide a field into several soil management units. Cluster analysis was used to group subfield units into functional zones based on yield monitor data. Yield monitor data were used to evaluate ex post information and variable application values for 1995-1999, and ex ante information and variable application values for 1999. Ex post analysis results show that soil zone information increased N input but decreased net return, while functional zone information decreased N input and increased net returns. Variable application decreased N input compared with uniform application. Variable application based on soil zone information reduced net return due to cost of overapplication or underapplication. Variable application based on functional information increased net return. Ex ante results show that information on spatial variability was not able to increase farmers?net return due to the cost of variable N application and information. Variable rate application decreases N input relative to uniform application. However, imprecision in the spatial predictor makes the variable application unprofitable due to an imbalance between costs of under- and over-application of N. Sensitivity analysis showed that value of information was positive when temporal uncertainty was eliminated. The ex post results of this study suggest there is potential to improve efficiency of N use and farmers?net returns with site specific management techniques. The ex ante results suggest that site specific management improvements should be tested under conditions faced by farmers including imperfect information about temporal and spatial yield variability.
- The Influence of Farm Advisory Services and Socio-Economic and Physical Factors on the Toxicity of Pesticides Used for Cotton and Peanuts in the Albemarle-Pamlico WatershedMitra, Sonali (Virginia Tech, 1997-09-05)The research undertaken in this study is an attempt to determine the influence of farm advisory services, socio-economic factors, and physical factors on the aggregate toxicity of pesticides used by cotton and peanut farmers in the Albemarle-Pamlico Watershed of Virginia and North Carolina. An aggregate toxicity index is developed for all pesticides used on each farm site. Four different types of farm advisors are considered in this study, namely, hired staff, university and state extension agents, chemical dealers, and scouting personnel. Regression analysis is used to estimate how the aggregate toxicity index and the aggregate pesticide expenditures were affected by farmers' choice of the most important farm advisory services; the farmer's age, education, and farming experience; productivity of the soil; soil erosion index; distance of farm from nearest water source; and the state in which the farm was located. The results of this study indicate that hired staff, scouting personnel, and extension agents are associated with higher aggregate toxicity of pesticides on cotton farms, while scouting personnel and chemical dealers are associated with higher aggregate toxicity of pesticides on peanut farms. More years of farming experience is associated with a slight decrease in aggregate toxicity on cotton farms. Increasing age of farmers is associated with a slight increase in aggregate toxicity on peanut farms. Training of farm advisors should include information about potential environmental damage from alternative pesticides. Advisors should be informed about the effects of soil physical characteristics on potential for environmental damage from pesticide use. Farm advisors should also be trained in methods to disseminate information to farmers on pesticide toxicity to the environment. More information on pesticide toxicity could also be publicized on pesticide packages. Continued research on less toxic pesticides and alternative pesticides is also an important strategy to reduce pesticide toxicity.
- Methods for Evaluating Agricultural Enterprises in the Framework of Uncertainty Facing Tobacco Producing Regions of VirginiaHalili, Rushan (Virginia Tech, 1999-11-22)The purpose of this study was to develop and demonstrate an analytical framework to filter technical and economic information regarding alternative agricultural enterprises in order to enable farmers to make more informed diversification and adjustment decisions. This is particularly important for areas that need to adjust the structure of income sources as a result of dramatic changes in market demand and/or agricultural policy. Tobacco producing regions are currently facing such a problem in the United States. These regions need to consider a wide range of alternatives to maintain or enhance income and standards of living. The problem involved both strategic economic decisions and operational economic decisions. The method used combined information in the ArcView Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with Linear Programming (LP). Part of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, served as a case study example. A GIS database including soils and climatic conditions of the study area was created. Soils belonging to land capability classes 1 to 4 were considered for agricultural purposes. Agronomic requirements for specific yield levels of the enterprises considered were tabulated. An ArcView GIS analysis was conducted based on soil map unit symbols. Soil depth, soil series, soil texture, slope, flood potential and average summer temperature were factors associated with yield. Natural drainage, pH, natural fertility, content of organic matter and annual rainfall were factors that served for enterprise budget adjustments. The output of ArcView GIS analysis is maps of physically viable enterprise boundaries or enterprise reference units and tables of attributes for each field. Marketing of agricultural products that have prices that fluctuate seasonally is feasible only within the period of time called the "market window". When average historical prices were above total costs, a market window was identified. The optimal enterprise mix was addressed by LP from a whole farm planning perspective based on the results of ArcView GIS analysis and other constraints, including crop rotations, and irrigation limits. Various levels of tobacco production, vegetable enterprise activity levels, and limits on irrigation were employed to generate, ten scenarios. Results include the optimal enterprise mix, net revenue (above variable costs), shadow prices and sensitivity analysis. It is shown that specialty crops are not likely to replace tobacco income, at least in the near term. Developing a diversified farm plan could help farmers to make a smooth transition to other alternatives.
- Microalgal Biodiesel Production through a Novel Attached Culture System and Conversion ParametersJohnson, Michael Ben (Virginia Tech, 2009-04-29)Due to a number of factors, the biodiesel industry in the United States is surging in growth. Traditionally, oil seed crops such as soybean are used as the feedstock to create biodiesel. However, the crop production can no longer safely keep up with the demand for the growing biodiesel industry. Using algae as a feedstock has been considered for a number of years, but it has always had limitations. These limitations were mainly due to the production methods used to grow and harvest the algae, rather than the reaction methods of creating the biodiesel, which are the same as when using traditional crops. Algae is a promising alternative to other crops for a number of reasons: it can be grown on non arable land, is not a food crop, and produces much more oil than other crops. In this project, we propose a novel attached growth method to produce the algae while recycling dairy farm wastewater using the microalga Chlorella sp. The first part of the study provided a feasibility study as the attachment of the alga onto the supporting substrate as well as determining the pretreatment options necessary for the alga to grow on wastewater. The results showed that wastewater filtered through cheesecloth to remove large particles was feasible for production of Chlorella sp, with pure wastewater producing the highest biomass yield. Most importantly, the attached culture system largely exceeded suspended culture systems as a potentially feasible and practical method to produce microalgae. The algae grew quickly and were able to produce more than 3.2 g/m2-day with lipid contents of about 9% dry weight, while treating dairy farm wastewater and removing upwards of 90% of the total phosphorus and 79% of the nitrogen contained within the wastewater. Once the "proof-of-concept" work was completed, we investigated the effects of repeat harvests and intervals on the biomass and lipid production of the microalgae. The alga, once established, was harvested every 6, 10, or 15 days, with the remaining algae on the substrate material functioning as inoculums for repeated growth. Using this method, a single alga colony produced biomass and lipids for well over six months time in a laboratory setting. The second part of this study investigated another aspect of biodiesel production from algae. Rather than focus solely on biomass production, we looked into biodiesel creation methods as well. Biodiesel is created through a chemical reaction known as transesterification, alcoholysis, or commonly, methylation, when methanol is the alcohol used. There are several different transesterification methods. By simplifying the reaction conditions and examining the effects in terms of maximum fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) produced, we were able to determine that a direct transesterification with chloroform solvent was more effective than the traditional extraction-transesterification method first popularized by Bligh & Dyer in 1959 and widely used. This synergistic research helps to create a more complete picture of where algal biodiesel research and development is going in the future.
- Modeling Farm-Level Costs of the Yield Reserve ProgramMetcalfe, Todd Andrew (Virginia Tech, 2006-06-20)Nonpoint Source (NPS) pollution, pollution that comes from diffuse sources that are difficult to trace back to a single point such as farm fields, is a major concern affecting America's water ways. Nationally, agriculture is the leading source of water impairment and has also been identified as the largest source of pollution affecting the Chesapeake Bay. There are proposals now for a program that would pay farmers to use 15 percent less than the extension recommended amount of fertilizer. Known as the Yield Reserve Program, or Enhanced Nutrient Management, this policy could possibly help to reduce the nutrient loads. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a Yield Reserve Program on farm yields and net revenues. Costs were estimated for different policy implementations for the Virginia Coastal Plain to better understand problems with this type of program. The effects of Yield Reserve on enterprise net returns, yields, and N applications for corn under varying weather and soil conditions were estimated. Based on experimental trials from North Carolina and Virginia from 2000 to 2004, yield response functions were calculated for corn. The costs of the Yield Reserve Program vary depending on its implementation, but under current proposals these costs were estimated at $113 per hectare, and $10,855,000 for the coastal plain. This proposal is a more costly program than would be necessary to compensate farmers for yield losses based on estimates in this study.
- Nutrient Management Planning on Virginia Livestock Farms: Impacts and Opportunities for ImprovementVanDyke, Laura Snively (Virginia Tech, 1997-01-31)This study provides an environmental and economic analysis of the ability to reduce potential nitrogen loadings to water bodies through the implementation of nutrient management plans on livestock farms. Study results indicate that nutrient management plans do result in significant reductions while maintaining or increasing farm income. Nutrient management plans on the four case farms reduced mean nitrogen losses by 23 to 45 percent per acre while increasing net farm income from $395 to $7,249. While reducing excess nitrogen applications with the implementation of nutrient management plans achieved significant reductions in potential nitrogen losses, further reductions may be achieved through farm level planning. After achieving initial reductions through the elimination of excessive nutrient applications, variation in application rates of organic and inorganic fertilizers across soils may become important in achieving further reductions in nitrogen loss. Study results suggest that it may be beneficial to apply higher rates of manure on soils and slopes less susceptible to nitrogen losses in order to reduce applications elsewhere. Increased nutrient losses on such fields may be more than offset by reductions on soils more susceptible to nutrient losses. Linear programming results for the Shenandoah Valley Dairy show that nitrogen losses could be reduced up to 44 percent below pre-plan losses with no impact on farm net economic returns. However, if nitrogen loss restrictions were instituted beyond this level, the impact on farm income increases significantly. After-plan nitrogen losses can reduced up to 52 percent, but farm returns decrease by 56 percent.
- On-Farm Composting: A Guide to Principles, Planning & OperationsChristian, Archer H.; Evanylo, Gregory K.; Pease, James W. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2009-05-01)Contains a discussion of basic composting principles, compostable materials, composting systems, the use of compost and its benefits, the steps for facility planning and operation, and the regulations that govern on-farm composting.
- Pesticide regulatory actions and the development of pest resistance: a dynamic bioeconomic modelKazmierczak, Richard Francis (Virginia Tech, 1991-07-03)Pest resistance to pesticides can have severe impacts on both commercial agriculture and the environment. But many resistance problems are exacerbated because pest susceptibility is a dynamic, common-property resource subject to inefficient allocation by the market. Theoretically, the impact of resistance can be mitigated through regulatory management of the control technology set. However, the current pesticide regulatory process does not include resistance considerations in its quantitative analyses due to the computational difficulties encountered when trying to optimize complex bioeconomic models. As a result, regulatory efforts may actually promote increased susceptibility depletion and the rapid emergence of resistance. This study overcame these problems by forming a dynamic bioeconomic model that combined: 1) a widely accepted genetic simulator used by entomologists; 2} an aggregate economic surplus model with nationwide regulatory relevance; and 3) an improved simulation optimization algorithm that conserved computational resources. For the purpose of illustration, the bioeconomic model was parameterized to represent the U.S. apple production system. Information generated through optimization of the dynamic bioeconomic model suggested that resistance becomes quantitatively important when planning horizons exceed 10 years, confirming that the economic performance of the production system becomes severely sub-optimal when susceptibility depletion is not incorporated into decision-making. Furthermore, insecticide withdrawals from an initial control technology set led to large additional losses in economic surplus, although the exact magnitude of these impacts varied depending on the characteristics of the insecticide withdrawn. Substantial withdrawal-induced losses in of the planning horizon, and they were accompanied by temporal shifts in insecticide applications. The need to incorporate a dynamic, bioeconomic simulation analysis in the regulatory process was demonstrated by comparing statically optimal and extant insecticide use recommendations with the dynamically̅optimal solutions. Optimal solutions drastically reduced economic surplus losses, although they did lead to increased levels of insecticide use. Ultimately, management of the resistance/regulation nexus requires that both current economic data and the time–dynamics of system biology play a prominent role in the benefits assessment process. This can only be accomplished if an investment is made in the necessary basic research and model development.
- Risk Analysis of Adopting Conservation Practices on a Representative Peanut-Cotton Farm in VirginiaPeng, Wei (Virginia Tech, 1997-09-26)The objective of this study is to evaluate the costs of reducing pesticide, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment losses of a representative risk-neutral and risk-averse peanut-cotton farmer in Southeast Virginia. Five currently popular rotations and eight alternative conservation rotations are evaluated for the representative farm. The Erosion-Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) model is used to simulate pesticide, nitrogen, phosphorus, and soil loss from each rotation using actual rainfall and temperature data from the study area. A Target-MOTAD mathematical programming model, REPVAFARM, is developed and solved with GAMS. The objective of the farmer is to maximize expected net return, while meeting a target income with certain allowable expected shortfall from the income target. The farmer is also constrained by land, labor, peanut quota, and levels of pesticide, nitrogen, phosphorus, and soil losses. Major findings of this study are: reducing pesticide, nitrogen, phosphorus, and soil losses imposes costs to the farmer regardless of his risk attitude, with costs ranking from high to low in the order of reducing all pollutant losses, reducing nitrogen losses, reducing phosphorus losses, reducing soil losses, and reducing pesticide losses. Costs of reducing pollutant losses are higher for more risk-averse farmers than for less risk-averse and risk-neutral farmers implying that risk-aversion is an obstacle to the adoption of alternative conservation practices. Reducing pesticide losses has little impact on other pollutants. Reducing pesticide and nitrogen losses simultaneously achieves similar reductions in soil loss and phosphorus loss.
- Sector-Targeting for Controlling Nutrient Loadings: A Case Study of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River WatershedSingh, Bibek B. (Virginia Tech, 2011-07-22)The main purpose of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) is to achieve a water quality standard. The economic costs of reducing nutrient loadings are often not taken into account during development. In this study, sector targeting is used to minimize the total cost of nutrient reduction by targeting sectors with lower costs per unit of pollution reduction. This study focuses on targeting nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loading reductions from three sectors: agricultural, point source, and urban non-point source, in the North Fork watershed. Linear programming optimization models were created to determine an optimal solution that minimized total compliance cost to implement BMPs subject to targeted loading reductions in N and P in the watershed. The optimal solution for each sector using uniform allocation and sector targeting were compared for N and P loading reductions separately and N and P reductions simultaneously. The difference between sector targeting and uniform allocation showed the sector targeting was the more cost effective approach to achieve the desired nutrient reduction compared to uniform allocation. From the agricultural sector, cropland and hayland buffers provided the best options for reducing both N and P. Urban BMPs are least efficient in term of nutrient reduction and cost. Similarly, for point source upgrade, Broadway has the lowest cost of upgrade per unit of N or P reduction. This study implies that both stakeholders and policymakers can use targeting to achieve nutrient reduction goals at lower costs. The policymakers can incorporate economic considerations in the TMDL planning process which can help in developing a cost-effective tributary strategy and cost-share program.