David E. Schimmelpfennig

United States Department of Agriculture | USDA · Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

The economics of plant and animal health protection influence country policies through rapidly evolving benefit-cost tradeoffs that are difficult to forecast. Increased threat of infestation by invasive species following novel trade pathways is one recent trend, being counteracted by advances in data analytics to target interventions on higher risk...

In the United States average adoption rates have increased for precision agriculture (PA) technologies used to produce many field crops. PA makes use of information collected on the farm to target site-specific, intensive management of farm production. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS)...

Precision agriculture allows farmers to save on seed, fertilizer, and pesticide costs; increase yields in certain situations; and be better stewards of farm resources. By 2016, 15-40 percent of U.S. farms used variable-rate application equipment, which adjusts input application rates depending on field conditions. • Labor-saving self-steering guida...

Every season farmers face a suite of production and conservation decisions, including crop and variety selection, fertilizer use, conservation strategies, and timing and intensity of tillage and irrigation. These decisions are informed by factors such as agricultural policy and technology availability. Production choices can impact the health of th...

Precision Ag adoption updates to 2016, and links to use of best management practices. https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/93026/eib-208.pdf?v=2348.3

Chapter from "Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators, 2019" • Precision agriculture allows farmers to save on seed, fertilizer, and pesticide costs; increase yields in certain situations; and be better stewards of farm resources. By 2016, 15-40 percent of U.S. farms used variable-rate application equipment, which adjusts input applica...

Agricultural production can place burdens on natural environments. Profitable crop production practices can have unintended consequences on farm natural resources that are difficult to monitor. This article considers if precision agriculture’s (PrecAg) information technologies can influence the rates, and profit implications, of using best manageme...

Ecosystem stewardship is an important goal of crop production management. The developing question has been the feasibility and profitability of best management practices (BMPs) associated with stewardship goals. Treatment-effects empirical estimates show that soybean crop ecosystem stewardship is likely to benefit from precision agriculture's (PA)...

Precision agriculture (PA) and its suite of information technologies—such as soil and yield mapping using a global positioning system (GPS), GPS tractor guidance systems, and variable-rate input application—allow farm operators to fine-tune their production practices. Access to detailed, within-field information can decrease input costs and increas...

Information-based production (precision agriculture) technologies are growing in popularity with farmers because their use can lead to closer monitoring of farm-production management decisions and possible cost savings. According to USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey, four technologies are the most commonly used: yield mapping, soil map...

Precision agricultural (PA) technologies can decrease input costs by providing farmers with more detailed information and application control, but adoption has been sluggish, especially for variable-rate technologies (VRT). Is it possible that farmers have difficulty realizing these cost savings? Combinations of PA technologies are considered as co...

India’s decelerating wheat- and rice-yield growth rates have led to questions of whether India’s agricultural sector will be able to meet future food demands. To explore this issue, ERS researchers measure sector-level agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) growth and evaluate how public policies affected TFP from 1980 to 2008. During this pe...

Purpose – The recent fluctuations in farm income remind us of the boom-bust nature of the agricultural sector. To better understand these fluctuations in farm income, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between farm income and influential factors from 1964 to 2010 allowing for structural breaks in the data. Design/methodology/...

U.S. agricultural output more than doubled between 1948 and 2011, with growth averaging 1.49 percent per year. With little growth in total measured use of agricultural inputs, the extraordinary performance of the U.S. farm sector was driven mainly by increases in total factor productivity (TFP—measured as output per unit of aggregate input). Over t...

Glyphosate, known by many trade names, including Roundup, is a highly effective herbicide. Widespread glyphosate use for corn and soybean has led to glyphosate resistance, which is now documented in 14 weed species affecting U.S. cropland, and recent surveys suggest that acreage with glyphosate-resistant (GR) weeds is expanding. Data from USDA’s Ag...

This paper uses statistics on agricultural productivity compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service to test the productiv-ity slowdown hypothesis. The indexes of productivity growth span the years 1948 to 2009. In our analysis, we apply econometric techniques that allow for multiple structural breaks at unknown points...

This paper uses statistics on agricultural productivity compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service to test the productiv-ity slowdown hypothesis. The indexes of productivity growth span the years 1948 to 2009. In our analysis, we apply econometric techniques that allow for multiple structural breaks at unknown points...

This paper uses statistics on agricultural productivity compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service to test the productiv-ity slowdown hypothesis. The indexes of productivity growth span the years 1948 to 2009. In our analysis, we apply econometric techniques that allow for multiple structural breaks at unknown points...

This paper uses statistics on agricultural productivity compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service to test the productivity slowdown hypothesis. The indexes of productivity growth span the years 1948 to 2009. In our analysis, we apply econometric techniques that allow for multiple structural breaks at unknown points...

This paper uses statistics on agricultural productivity compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service to test the productivity slowdown hypothesis. The indexes of productivity growth span the years 1948 to 2009. In our analysis, we apply econometric techniques that allow for multiple structural breaks at unknown points...

Meeting growing global demand for food, fiber, and biofuel requires robust investment in agricultural research and development (R&D) from both public and private sectors. This study examines global R&D spending by private industry in seven agricultural input sectors, food manufacturing, and biofuel and describes the changing structure of these indu...

Concentration in several global agricultural input industries has risen significantly; by 2009, the largest four firms in the crop seed, agricultural chemical, animal health, animal genetics/breeding, and farm machinery sectors accounted for more than 50 percent of global market sales in each sector.

Led by seed biotechnology, private-sector spending in agricultural R&D grew 43% from 1994 to 2010.

This volume is written primarily for agricultural economists doing research on productivity. It includes discussions of the theoretical underpinnings of productivity measurement as well as the many practical considerations that go into translating this theory into actual measures of aggregated outputs and inputs. The unifying concept of agricultura...

Precision agricultural (PA) technologies can decrease input costs by providing farmers with more detailed information and application control, but adoption has been sluggish, especially for variable-rate technologies (VRT). Is it possible that farmers have difficulty realizing these cost savings? Combinations of PA technologies are considered as co...

Meeting growing global demand for food, fiber, and biofuel requires robust investment in agricultural research and development (R&D) from both public and private sectors. This report highlights the major findings of a study examining global R&D spending by private industry in seven agricultural input sectors, food manufacturing, and biofuel and des...

Inorganic, synthetic fertilizer is a critical ingredient in the global food economy. In 2008, global consumption of the three main agricultural fertilizer nutrients—nitrogen (N), phosphate (P2O5), and potash (KCl, or potassium)— totaled 162 million metric tons (FAO). Nitrogen accounts for about 63 percent of the total tonnage of fertilizers applied...

Cointegration techniques are applied to a model of induced innovation based on the two-stage Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) production function. This approach results in direct tests of the inducement hypothesis, which are applied to agricultural data for the United Kingdom from 1953 to 2000. The time series properties of the variables a...

Ahearn, M., J. Yee, E. Ball and R. Nehring (1998). Agricultural productivity in the United

The adoption of precision agriculture, which encompasses a suite of farm-level information technologies, can improve the efficiency of input use and reduce environmental harm from the overapplication of inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides. Still, the adoption of precision agricultural technologies and practices has been less rapid than envisi...

Meeting growing global demand for food, fiber, and biofuel requires robust investment in agricultural research and development (R&D) from both public and private sectors. This study examines global R&D spending by private industry in seven agricultural input sectors, food manufacturing, and biofuel and describes the changing structure of these indu...

We consider optimal behavior in a class of spatial-dynamic economic problems related to a negative externality with stock effects, via the development of a dynamic, non-cooperative game. The feedback Nash equilibrium response functions are parameterized based on an invasive weed faced by western US cattle ranchers. Dynamic simulations illustrate th...

An early-warning system generates economic value to the extent that it improves decision making. The value of the information hinges on the degree to which a timely response, aided by warnings, facilitates successful damage mitigation. USDA’s Coordinated Framework for Soybean Rust includes a network of sentinel soybean plots and wild kudzu stands m...

Over the years, proposals have recommended shifting the focus of public agricultural research from applied to basic research, and giving higher priority to peer-reviewed, competitively funded grants. The public agricultural research system in the United States is a Federal-State partnership, with most research conducted at State institutions. In re...

This article updates total factor productivity (TFP) growth in UK agriculture from 1953-2005 and shows that public and private research and returns to scale explain TFP. Cointegration and causality tests are used to investigate the validity of attempts to explain UK agricultural productivity with R&D and related technology variables. Then, the leng...

Multilateral Productivity ComparisonsExplaining TFP Growth: The Model and the DataPanel Data Estimates for the United States and EuropeResults at the National Level: With and Without SpilloversRates of Return to R&DSummary and Conclusions Appendix: Multilateral TFPs: Theory and DataNotesReferences

This chapter contains section titled:

Suggestions for Further Reading

A new, inclusive collection of 11,000 agricultural biotechnology utility patents issued between 1988 and 2002 is related to characteristics of agbiotech, seed, chemical, diversified multinational and European firms. The patents are classified into nine technologies, and mergers and acquisitions among the firms are considered in tracking flows of di...

Allocations of research funds across programs are often made for efficiency reasons. Social science research is shown to have small, lagged but significant effects on U.S. agricultural efficiency when public agricultural R&D and extension are simultaneously taken into account. Farm management and marketing research variables are used to explain var...

Early-warning systems for plant diseases are valuable when the systems provide timely forecasts that farmers can use to inform their pest management decisions. To evaluate the value of the systems, this study examines, as a case study, USDA’s coordinated framework for soybean rust surveillance, reporting, prediction, and management, which was...

The agricultural biotechnology industry has experienced consolidation. As a form of sunk costs, increased regulatory costs could contribute to exit by smaller firms and increasing industry concentration. Cost and revenue factors other than regulation, however, are more likely to explain consolidation to date. Regulation may be endogenous, as innova...

With accurate information, individuals can make sound decisions that allow them to adjust their actions to the situation at hand. Information comes from many sources, but the value of publicly provided information is often underestimated. For farmers who are trying to react to a potential pest infection, such as soybean rust, information about the...

White maize is the staple food of the majority of the South African population. We examine if smallholder farmers that adopted insect-resistant (Bt) varieties of white maize benefited from planting Bt over the last three seasons. Commercial farmers are known to benefit from planting Bt maize in high stalk borer or corn borer infestation years, but...

Economists provide sometimes contradictory information about economic systems that contribute to policy design. How does one value this type of knowledge? A political-economic game is presented that allows for reinforcing and contradictory research messages. Policy makers are assumed to follow a Bayesian decision theory process and the model is tes...

A subset of patents owned by six large agricultural biotechnology companies is analyzed from the new Initiatives for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS) Agricultural Biotechnology Intellectual Property database. These patents account for over 40% of US agricultural biotechnology patents issued 1976-2000 held by US and European firms. We des...

The plant variety protection (PVP) system has been criticized by some authors as being nothing more than a marketing tool and not having much effect on productivity. We investigate this issue for the case of cotton in the United States, first by examining trends in cotton varieties planted and then by quantifying the effect of PVP varieties on cott...

The Republic of South Africa (RSA) is the first developing country to plant genetically modified staple food - Bt white maize. The following paper describes the development and spread of Bt maize in RSA that started in 1998. After that, based on surveys of 33 large commercial Bt maize farmers and 368 smallholders in 2001/2, it shows that Bt maize g...

One of the issues with respect to climate change involves its influence on the distribution of future crop yields. Many studies have been done regarding the effect on the mean of such distributions but few have addressed the effect on variance. Furthermore, those that have been done generally report the variance from crop simulators, not from obser...

Previous work on structural change in agriculture has failed to distinguish long-run trends from structural breaks leading to new trends. We measure structural changes as statistically significant breaks in either stochastic or deterministic time trends, and apply these measures to agricultural productivity and research. Productivity has a break in...

Agricultural research drives increases in agricultural productivity, and the number of private agricultural input firms has been declining. The empirical relationship between the number of firms doing applied biotechnology crop research and the amount of research output they produce is investigated in a research profit function model. Increases in...

The regulatory systems in place prior to the development and expansion of agricultural biotechnology are still responding to this new form of technology. Such systems include trade law, intellectual property law, contract law, environmental regulations and biosafety regulations. This book reviews these reforms which are aimed at achieving a regulat...

Technology adoption can create income benefits for large and small-scale producers, input suppliers and consumers in developing countries. The circumstances under which this income creation can take place are shown to depend on a wide range of factors applicable across dualistic agricultural practices in South Africa. Whether for large commercial f...

Tobin’s Q-theory of investment has been linked to firm merger activity by Jovanovic and Rousseau. They showed that firms with higher Q-values, that is the ratio of market to book values, tend to be the ones buying other firms and not the ones being acquired. Market values should theoretically equal book values — a firm’s assets as they appear on th...

A new panel data test for Granger causality is presented that can be applied to panels with more time series observations than cross-sections. Inconsistency in these models with lagged dependent variables and fixed effects is avoided by differencing and pooling the data. The joint significance tests are also non-standard. The result is a set of hom...

The output of agricultural economics research is information, much of it aimed at designing or improving institutions. Bayesian decision theory and economic surplus analysis have been suggested as possible approaches to evaluate that information. This article takes a critical look at the strengths and weaknesses of combining those approaches for em...

Book review of Alston et al. from Agricultural Economics

Book review of Alston et al. from Agricultural Economics

Evidence of research impacts is often requested, but there have been relatively few quantitative evaluations of social science research, including agricultural economics research (AER). The output of AER is difficult to measure, is aimed at diverse objectives, and is often imbedded in recommendations, institutional changes, or quantitative methods....

An error correction model (ECM) of induced innovation, based on the two-stage CES production function allows direct tests of the inducement hypothesis, which are applied to U.S. data for 1880–1990. The time series properties of the variables include a structural break in 1920, cointegration is established and an ECM constructed, which allows factor...

Crop yield variability is a defining characteristic of agriculture. Variations in yield and production are strongly influenced by fluctuations in weather. Concern has been expressed about the consequences of the buildup of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere on long-term climate patterns, including the frequency of extreme events, and the sub...