Wendong Zhang

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at Cornell University

Women own or co-own almost half of the land in the US Midwest and women landowners are playing an increasingly important role in production and financial decision-making. Despite their growing influence, women landowners are less engaged in conservation programs and networks, primarily due to inadequate access to conservation services and resources...

In 2019, sales of American agricultural products to China nearly dried up as Beijing retaliated against U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports. We solicited farmers’ perceptions of risks engendered by the trade dispute through a survey of 304 corn and soybean growers in the states of Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota. We found that farmers’ risk perceptions w...

Waterborne Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) represents a pervasive water quality problem across the United States. In Michigan, the presence of E. coli has become problematic for many areas where agricultural run-off and ineffective policies have made these outbreaks endemic. Combining the universe of housing transaction datasets from 2009 to 2017 with...

Many financial markets use designated market makers (DMMs), but the impacts of DMMs on agricultural futures markets – and in particular, how to arrange DMMs among contracts expiring in different months – are largely neglected. In 2017, Chinese exchanges started recruiting DMMs for inactive contracts when they become nearby contracts to address the...

Outdoor recreation plays a pivotal role in improving people’s physical and mental health, serving as a popular form of entertainment and a significant economic contributor. Limited access to these resources not only exacerbates health disparities but also deprives underserved areas of essential benefits like stress relief and community bonding, bot...

Political and economic tensions, which often jeopardise trade, are rising among the world's major powers, and countries like China are more frequently using food‐related trade actions to deal with deteriorating political relations. Using an event study approach, this paper investigates how importers respond to lasting political tensions by examinin...

Organic cucurbit growers face many challenges to production including insect pests, insect-vectored diseases, and non-vectored diseases. While Organic Material Review Institute (OMRI) -listed pesticides underperform at suppressing pests and diseases, some alternative pest management strategies hold promise, but little research exists on their cost-...

Bacterial wilt of cucurbits, caused by Erwinia tracheiphila, is spread by spotted ( Diabrotica undeimpunctata howardi ) and striped ( Acalymma vittatum ) cucumber beetles and results in major losses for US cucurbit (Cucurbitaceae spp.) growers. Organic growers of muskmelon ( Cucumis melo ) lack reliable control measures against bacterial wilt. Duri...

In early 2020, China, Australia's top export market, unilaterally imposed trade restrictions on Australian barley, beef, coal, cotton, timber, copper and wine. However, convincing evidence regarding the effects of such trade restrictions on firms is scarce. Leveraging data on daily stock returns from 20 listed Australian and 32 listed Chinese firms...

This study examines how the political alignments of Midwestern farmers, proxied by their consumption of partisan media, affect their perceptions of and responses to the US–China trade war. Our results indicate that farmers who consume conservative media perceive a lower income loss resulting from the trade war and view the Market Facilitation Progr...

Using 589 responses to the 2019 Iowa Farm Transfer Survey, we examine factors in farm successor choices among Iowa farmers with a focus on female successors and landowners. Among those with identified successors, 57% chose sons and 8% chose daughters. We find a 12.4% probability a female farmer will choose a daughter, but only 5.9% for a male farme...

Using panel data on a statistically representative sample of Iowa farmland parcels from 1997 to 2017, we analyze the factors determining whether land is farmed by the owner or rented out under a cash rent or crop share contract. The landowner's decision to rent or operate the land depends on the distribution of expected net returns to the land, and...

Using a survey of 430 farmer respondents in the Boone and North Raccoon River watersheds in Iowa, we examine the impacts of three program innovations—reverse auctions, spatially targeted payments, and higher offered payments—on agricultural conservation program cost effectiveness and participation by farmers. We combine farmer responses to a discre...

Organic growers of cucurbit (Cucurbitaceae) crops in the midwestern United States have difficulty managing bacterial wilt-a fatal disease with a pathogen (Erwinia tracheiphila) that is transmitted by striped and spotted cucumber beetles (Acalymma vittatum and Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi, respectively). Registered organic insecticides lack ef...

The African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks in China since 2018 caused a more than 100 million decline in its hog inventory. Leveraging publicly available announcements of ASF outbreaks and daily stock prices data from 25 major publicly listed hog companies from China and eight major hog exporting countries, we use the event study method to estimate fi...

We calibrate the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development International Agricultural Commodity Market model using 2019/20 marketing year crop data and 2020 calendar year livestock and biofuel data to project China's agricultural imports under six plausible policy scenarios focusing on ethanol, corn, and pork from 2021 to 2030. Our baseline pro...

This study introduces a database for analyzing COVID-19’s impacts on China’s regional economies. This database contains various sectoral and regional economic outcomes at the weekly and monthly level. In the context of a general equilibrium trade model, we first formulate a mathematical representation of the Chinese regional economy and calibrate t...

The first section of this report provides a brief discussion of the US and global fertilizer markets and explores some of the factors that have influenced fertilizer production and pricing. The second section presents a more formal analysis examining the historical relationships among fertilizer, natural gas, and corn prices and looks for structura...

The Iowa and Midwest farmland markets have seen tremendous momentum over the past 18 months. Both the Iowa Land Value Survey and the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank’s AgLetter show that average farmland values in Iowa rose 30% last year to the highest nominal values since the 1940s (Zhang 2021; Oppedahl 2022). At the same time, concerns about the sust...

China is the world’s largest hog producer and a leading pork importer. Since August 2018, ongoing outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF), a highly contagious and deadly disease affecting pigs, have hit China’s livestock industries and wiped out 40% of China’s pigs. We leverage data on daily stock returns from 25 major publicly listed firms from Chi...

Coal-fired power plants are among the biggest air polluters both in China and globally. In 2013, China launched a pilot project to switch its power plants from coal to natural gas to curb coal-fired plants’ detrimental effects on air quality. Debates about this policy mainly invoke the costs, but no study examines whether the change led to cleaner...

US–China trade relations have implications for global nitrogen and phosphorus surpluses, and increasing blue water demand. The case shows that trade policy analysis needs to integrate environmental considerations.

Conservation practices such as no-till and cover crops have been shown to have on- and off-farm benefits. However, when benefits of a practice do not go to the provider, underinvestment may occur. Farmland rental arrangements where tenants may not reap the benefits of conservation investments are a commonly cited barrier to conservation practice ad...

Purpose This paper quantifies the effects of recent Federal Reserve interest rate changes, specifically recent hikes and cuts in the federal funds rate since 2015, on Midwest farmland values. Design/methodology/approach The authors apply three autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) models to a panel data of state-level farmland values from 1963 to...

This study introduces a database for analyzing COVID-19’s impacts on China’s regional economies. This database contains various sectoral and regional economic outcomes at the weekly and monthly level. In the context of a general equilibrium trade model, we first formulate a mathematical representation of the Chinese regional economy and calibrate t...

http://www.sustainableagsummit.org/agenda/

The COVID‐19 pandemic is crippling the global economy and heightening distrust and political disagreements among major countries. Furthermore, ongoing deglobalization efforts taken by firms and countries are fueling the rise of economic nationalism. A prime example is the possible decoupling of US–China economic and trade relations, which the ongoi...

Small sample size often limits forecasting tasks such as the prediction of production, yield, and consumption of agricultural products. Machine learning offers an appealing alternative to traditional forecasting methods. In particular, support vector regression has superior forecasting performance in small sample applications. In this article, we i...

A micro-level analysis of farmers’ perceptions and views of the U.S.-China trade war. Respondents are con and sorghum farmers in Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois.

Farmers in China and many other developing countries suffer from low technical efficiency of chemical fertilizer use, which leads to excessive nutrient runoff and other environmental problems. A major cause of the low efficiency is lack of science-based information and recommendations for nutrient application. In response, the Chinese government la...

We examine how land tenure arrangements affect Chinese crop farmers’ adoption of straw retention, a key conservation practice promoted by the Chinese government in part to curb rising air pollution. Using data from a 2016 farmer household survey covering 1659 crop plots in Henan Province in central China, we analyze whether farmers are less likely...

Corn production in the US Midwest has the potential to generate a large amount of crop residue for bioenergy production. However, unconstrained harvesting of crop residues is associated with a long-term decline in soil quality. Biochar applications can mitigate many of the negative effects of residue removal but data and economic analyses to suppor...

Executive Summary In this analysis, we use historical trade patterns, revenue linkages, and recent futures market price changes to discern the 2018 tariffs' near-term impacts on the state of Iowa. We use two distinct modeling techniques, and in each technique we make two distinct assumptions. First, we use partial-equilibrium modeling approaches th...

Farmland is arguably often a farmer’s single largest investment item, a major source of collateral, and a key component of the farmer’s debt portfolio. At the macro level, the value of land and buildings represent over 80 percent of all U.S. farm assets. As a result, changes in the farmland market and the implications for farmland owners, tenants,...

Despite the growing awareness of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the United States and abroad, estimates of welfare losses due to their presence are missing from the literature. Using a mail survey of 767 Ohio Lake Erie recreational angler respondents and a choice experiment, this study provides the first empirical quantification of the economic imp...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the current farm economic downturn and credit restructuring by comparing it with the 1920s and 1980s farm crises from both economic and regulatory perspectives. Design/methodology/approach This paper closely compares critical economic and regulatory aspects of the current farm downturn with two pre...

Using agricultural professionals' forecasts of future farmland values and corn and soybean cash prices for their service area, we analyze whether their land and corresponding crop price expectations are consistent. We find that changes in expected land prices over time are positively correlated with expected crop price changes, suggesting these two...

After three consecutive declines since its 2013 peak, the average land value for all qualities of farmland saw its first increase. The estimated $7,326 per acre statewide average for all qualities of land represents a 2.0 percent increase from November 2016. To many, this recent 2.0 percent indicates a turnaround of the farmland market—58 percent o...

In September 2017, the Chinese government announced a new nationwide ethanol mandate that expands the mandatory use of E10 fuel (gasoline containing 10 percent ethanol) from 11 trial provinces to the entire country by 2020. This measure would require ethanol consumption in China, the largest motor vehicle market in the world, to at least quadruple...

There are plenty of alarming signs indicating a possible farm crisis: current corn prices are half the 2013 peak level of US $7/bushel; farm income has declined for major commodities (corn, wheat, cattle), falling from the previous year to levels well below recent years; weak farm income and worsening credit conditions continue to trim farmland val...

While many opinion-based surveys ask land values for different land quality classes, little is known how survey respondents perceive the land quality. Using the 2015 Iowa Land Value Survey, this article examines how respondents perceive land quality in their responses to land value questions. Our results show agricultural professionals seem to perc...

A warning system for the sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) fungal disease complex of apple, developed originally for use in the southeastern United States, was modified to provide more reliable assessment of SBFS risk in Iowa. Modeling results based on previous research in Iowa and Wisconsin had suggested replacing leaf wetness duration with cumulat...

In early 2013, farmers in Iowa and across the Midwest braced for a difficult corn market, with prices declining from $7/bushel in late 2012 to $4/bushel in early 2015, and finally settling at $3/bushel. Shielded from the world market, corn producers in China enjoyed a steady elevated corn price of almost $10/bushel from 2011 until 2015—largely a re...

Phosphorus loadings from the Maumee River watershed have significantly compromised the Lake Erie ecosystem, as evidenced by the most severe harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie in 2015 and the shut-down of Toledo drinking water supply in 2014. Despite government payments for adoption of voluntary conservation practices, excess nutrient runoff from agri...

Valued at 2.31 trillion US dollars in 2016, farm real estate (land and structures) accounted for 85% of total US farm assets; in addition, farm real estate also represents the largest single item in a typical farmer’s investment portfolio. As a result, changes in its values have been a perennial interest to policy-makers, farmers, researchers and i...

As the biofuel industry has developed, there has been a lot of discussion about the linkages between the energy and agricultural markets. The growth of the ethanol and biodiesel sectors bolstered the connection among the oil, gas, and crop markets. As crop-based biofuels compete in the energy market, crop prices are directly impacted not only by th...

The purpose of this study was to 1) better understand the prevalence of a variety of BMPs in the Maumee watershed, 2) identify why farmers choose to adopt certain BMPs, and 3) identify what motivates individual farmer willingness to adopt additional practices on their farm. This information may reveal what, if any, methods may be employed to increa...

This article examines which is a better investment - the stock market or farmland. It is an update of earlier comparisons.To determine which option provided the better investment, this article compares the returns to farmland and the stock market since 1950. It also discusses some of the important factors to consider over the next few years.

Using data on subdivision development from 1960 to 2005 in the Baltimore, Maryland region, we develop a new, subdivision-specific measure of leapfrog development. Applying this measure, we find that about 80% of developable land that was more accessible to the urban center than newly built subdivisions remained undeveloped as of 1960. This amount d...

div>Over the past few years, U.S. agriculture has experienced a myriad of macroeconomic and environmental changes that have profound implications for the well-being of farm households and the farm sector. An expanding biofuels market and growing export demand from China have led to rising agricultural commodity prices since mid-2000s. However, duri...

div>Over the past few years, U.S. agriculture has experienced a myriad of macroeconomic and environmental changes that have profound implications for the well-being of farm households and the farm sector. An expanding biofuels market and growing export demand from China have led to rising agricultural commodity prices since mid-2000s. However, duri...

The Iowa State University Land Value Survey reported a 3.9 percent decrease to $7,633 in Iowa farmland values from November 2014 to November 2015. This represents a modest decline in Iowa farmland values and the first time that land values have decreased two years in a row since 2000. However, despite continued downward pressures on farm income and...

With one in four rows of soybeans planted in Iowa exported to China, it is almost impossible to overstate the importance of the Chinese economy and its consumers have for US agricultural producers and the farm sector in general. However, there is a lack of understanding of China’s agricultural industry and, in particular, the life and work of a typ...

This article estimates the impact of the 2007–2008 residential housing market bust on farmland values, using parcel-level farmland sales data from 2001–2010 for a 50-county region under urbanization pressure in western Ohio. Hedonic model estimates reveal that farmland was not immune to the residential housing bust; the portion of farmland value at...

This article estimates the impact of the 2007–2008 residential housing market bust on farmland values, using parcel-level farmland sales data from 2001–2010 for a 50-county region under urbanization pressure in western Ohio. Hedonic model estimates reveal that farmland was not immune to the residential housing bust; the portion of farmland value at...

The Iowa State University Land Value Survey reported a 3.9 percent decrease to $7,633 in Iowa farmland values from November 2014 to November 2015. This represents a modest decline in Iowa farmland values and the first time that land values have decreased two years in a row since 2000. However, despite continued downward pressures on farm income and...

With one in four rows of soybeans planted in Iowa exported to China, it is almost impossible to overstate the importance of the Chinese economy and its consumers have for US agricultural producers and the farm sector in general. However, there is a lack of understanding of China’s agricultural industry and, in particular, the life and work of a typ...

Using data on subdivision development from 1960-2005 in the Baltimore, Maryland region, we develop a new, subdivision-specific measure of leapfrog development. Applying this measure, we find that about 80% of developable land that was more accessible to the urban center than newly built subdivisions remained undeveloped as of 1960. This amount decl...

Using data on subdivision development from 1960-2005 in the Baltimore, Maryland region, we develop a new, subdivision-specific measure of leapfrog development. Applying this measure, we find that about 80% of developable land that was more accessible to the urban center than newly built subdivisions remained undeveloped as of 1960. This amount decl...

Farmland is arguably the largest single item in a typical investment portfolio of U.S. farmers and it accounts for about 85 percent of the equity for the entire farm sector (USDA-ERS 2015). For Iowa, farmland not only represents the base for our agricultural production; farmland, including buildings, represents over $259 billion dollars of wealth i...

This article estimates the impact of the 2007-2008 residential housing market bust on farmland values, using parcel-level farmland sales data from 2001-2010 for a 50-county region under urbanization pressure in western Ohio. Hedonic model estimates reveal that farmland was not immune to the residential housing bust; the portion of farmland value at...