An official website of the United States government.
<p>OBJECTIVES 1. Micro-level modeling of natural resource and environmental risk issues, including ground- and surface-water pollution, and increased emphasis on agricultural sustainability, and increased conflicts in resource demands between agricultural and competing users.</p>
<p>2. Firm level risk management modeling, including the production, financial, marketing and environmental impacts and risks associated with new technology and the potential benefits resulting from improved access to information.</p>
<p>3. Economic theory and the behavioral foundations of decision making under uncertainty, in risk assessment, asymmetric risk attitudes, and state-dependent utility.</p>
<p>4. The impact of public policy on the risk environment of individuals, firms, and sectors within exogenous trade shocks, food safety regulations, changes in financial and farm insurance institutions,
and resource pricing policies.</p>
<p>EXPECTED OUTCOMES: Publish proceedings and journal articles of the major issues in the southern region each year based on topics covered at the annual meeting. Post extended abstracts and copies of presentations delivered during the annual meeting on a website dedicated to this multistate research project (SERA 30) as well as on the website of a supporting agency such as Farm Foundation so that other researchers can access them for review the materials. Develop a set of models for reducing point and nonpoint sources of pollution that can provided to and adopted by state and federal agencies to help them develop pollution control policies and meet the TMDL goal in the southern region in a more economically efficient manner. Develop a set of water and forest based recreation models that can delivered to and used by state and federal agencies to manage these resources in a manner that is economically and environmentally beneficial to society. Develop extension educational materials on the agro-environmental issues, such as economic and environmental trade-offs of specific agricultural systems or impacts of conservation programs, and post them to the SERA 30 website for extension specialists in the Southern region to use in their extension programs.</p>
<p>NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:<br/> In the Southern region, several environmental and resource problems exist such as agricultural related pollution, water quantity shortage, watershed impairment from point and non point source pollution, and coastal area land loss. Agricultural pollution emitted by animal feeding operations (AFOs) and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and the South's intensive agricultural cropping systems threaten water quality and the very health of sensitive ecosystem in the region. These problems will continue to grow as the region's dependence on row crop production and animal husbandry continues. While all states must meet federal AFO and CAFO regulations, enforcement varies greatly. Some state environmental regulations of AFOs and CAFOs are stricter than federal regulations, resulting in a movement of operations across state lines. The
structural shift of animal industry has brought increased health and resource concerns to those areas of the region with weaker regulations or less stringent enforcement. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the impact of structural change in the region considering ecosystem health and economy as joint products. Federal and state policies can be implemented to control pollution in the region, but balancing pollution and economic goal should be considered together. This requires cost benefit analysis to determine the benefit of having livestock and poultry industries in region and cost of having these to water pollution and overall environmental quality in the region. It is the objective of this group to provide needed information to federal and state agencies so that prudent decisions can be made that enhance the economy and protect the environmental quality in the region. The Southern
region is known for its recreational opportunities. From the Smoky Mountains to Florida coast and Louisiana coastal wetland, visitors are provided with an array of opportunities for recreation. It has been realized by the members of this group that necessary policies need to be in place so that these resources can be transferred to future generations in a usable form while at the same time ensuring that the present generation can use these resources in a consumptive or non-consumptive manner. The major justification for this regional exchange group is to reduce the duplication of similar research and extension efforts and to adjust to scare financial resources at member institutions. Collaboration among researchers and extension specialists in the region helps to solve this resource-scarcity problem more efficiently. The continuation of the exchange group allows for active future
collaboration among members in addressing the resource problems in the region so as to determine the economically feasible and environmentally sound solutions and to disseminate that information to other research and extension professionals, state and federal agency personnel and policymakers in the region.
<p>APPROACH:
<br/>As part of our annual process, we develop an annual report which is posted to the NIMSS soon after the annual meeting has taken place. From this annual meeting, held in early summer, proceedings (extended abstracts) and electronic versions of the selected presentations will be posted on the SERA 30 website and the website of the Farm Foundation, our sponsoring agency. At the annual meeting, members of SERA 30 develop a theme and assign individuals to submit a principal paper proposal for the annual meeting of the regional agricultural economics association for the following winter. The SERA 30 group has been very successful at having these principal paper proposals accepted for the meeting and published in their peer-reviewed journal. The website for SERA 30 is in the process of being developed by cooperators at Louisiana State University. Proceedings from
annual meetings, electronic versions of presentations, and annual reports for the past several years, for which there exist electronic files, will be posted to the website first. Older, paper annual reports and proceedings will be scanned and posted later. Links to institutions participating in SERA 30 as well as the Farm Foundation will be provided on the SERA 30 website.</p>
<p>PROGRESS:
<br/>2011/10 TO 2012/09
<br/>OUTPUTS: PRESENTATIONS AT PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS (peer reviewed) for the period 10/01/2011 to 09/30/2012: Lee, J., Denis Nadolnyak, and Valentina Hartarska. ""The Impacts of Climate Change on Agricultural Production in the Southeast U.S."" Selected paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), Seattle, August 2012. Hartarska, V.M. and Denis Nadolnyak. ""Financing Constraints and Access to Credit in Post Crisis Environment: Evidence from New Farmers in Alabama," Selected paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), Seattle, August 2012. Wesley, J. and D. Nadolnyak. ""The Efficiency of The Transgenic Seed Technology: Stochastic Frontier Analysis of the U.S. Corn Production under Climate Variability,"" Selected paper presented at the
Economics and Management of Risk in Agriculture and Natural Resources, (SCC-76 Information Exchange Group) Annual Meeting, FL, March 15-17, 2012 Hartarska, V. and D. Nadolnyak, ""Financing Constraints and Access to Credit in Post Crisis Environment: Evidence from New Farmers in Alabama,"" Selected paper presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Southern Association of Agricultural Economics, Birmingham, Alabama, February 4-7, 2012 Lee, J., D. Nadolnyak, and V. Hartarska. ""Impact of Climate Change on Agricultural Production in Asian Countries: Evidence From Panel Study,"" Selected paper presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Southern Association of Agricultural Economics, Birmingham, Alabama, February 4-7, 2012 Chavez, H., D. Nadolnyak, and J. Kloepper. ""Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Biological Agents (Microbial Inoculants) Input Use in Apple Production."" Selected paper presented at
the 44th Annual Meeting of the Southern Association of Agricultural Economics, Birmingham, Alabama, February 4-7, 2012 POSTERS (10/01/2011 to 09/30/2012): Chavez, H., D. Nadolnyak, and J. Kolepper. """"Economics of microbial inoculations as part of Integrated Pest Management,"" Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), Seattle, August 2012. Sheng Li, D. Nadolnyak, and Yaoqi Zhang . ""Land Use Change in Lee County, Florida: Impacts of Economic and Natural Risk Factors,"" Poster presentaion at the South East Climate Consortium planning meeting, Auburn, AL, April 9-11, 2012. Sheng Li, Y. Zhang, and D. Nadolnyak . ""Flood hazard and land conversion in coastal area: rural development response to natural risk,"" Poster Presentaion at the Southern Forest Economic Workers Annual Meeting in Charlotte, NC, March 20-21, 2012. Hartarska, V., D.
Nadolnyak, and T. McAdams. ""Microfinance and Microbusiness' Financing Constraints in Eastern Europe and Central Asia,"" Poster presented at a session on New Research on Economic Comparisons and Institutions, American Economics Association, Chicago, January 5-8, 2012. Chavez, H., D. Nadolnyak & M. Saravia. ""Socioeconomic and Environmental Impact of Development Interventions: Rice Production and the ""Gallito Ciego"" (Peru) Reservoir: Case Study."" Poster presented at the American Society of Agronomy International Annual Meetings, San Antonio, TX, Oct 16-19, 2011.
<br/>PARTICIPANTS: Not relevant to this project.
<br/>TARGET AUDIENCES: Not relevant to this project.
<br/>PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.</p>