Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Please see attached "Copy of Minutes" file below for NC1177's 2014/2015 meeting minutes annual report. You must be logged into NIMSS to view this attachment, FYI.

Members from a number of institutions explored important issues in renewable energy production and the effects of climate change on agricultural production and the farm financial sector. The works include a Louisiana State University study on the linkage between energy prices and agricultural prices and several studies by Colorado State University and Cornell University on climate change, technology, and insurance adoption issues in Bangladesh. Multiple universities have completed studies related to growth and trade of agricultural products in developing countries. The selected publication list highlights many studies by Cornell University on agricultural production in China and Bangladesh. Multiple universities have examined lender relationships and long term financial health of U.S. farms. Examples include studies of the role of off-farm income for small farm survival by researchers at Louisiana State University and the role of farm program payments in farm financial conditions by researchers at University of Georgia and Cornell University. Farm real estate accounts for more than 80% of the wealth of the farm sector, and as a result, a number of researchers have examined important issues related to the pricing of agricultural land, including researchers from University of Illinois and Cornell University. The long-term sustainability of firms was investigated by a number of researchers. The various issues examined include the role of farm policy, immigration, farm labor, technology adoption, and the efficiency of the Farm Credit System.

1. Murguia, J. M., and S. H. Lence. 2015. “Investors' Reaction to Environmental Performance: A Global Perspective of the Newsweek's ‘Green Rankings’.” Environmental and Resource Economics 60(4):583-60. 2. Ifft, Jennifer, Todd H. Kuethe, and Mitch Morehart. 2015. “The Impact of Decoupled Payments on US Cropland Values” Agricultural Economics 46: 643-652. 3. Ifft, Jennifer, Todd H. Kuethe, and Mitch Morehart. 2015. “Does Federal Crop Insurance Lead to Higher Farm Debt Use? Evidence from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS)” Agricultural Finance Review 75 (3): 349-367. 4. Nicholas Paulson and Todd H. Kuethe. 2015. “Trends in U.S. Farm Size and Future Demand for Professional Farm Management Services” Journal of American Society of Farm Managers Rural Appraisers 78 (1): 124-138. 5. Freshwater, D. 2015. “Vulnerability and Resilience: Two Dimensions of Rurality” Sociologia Ruralis, Vol. 55(4): 497–515. 6. Hadrich, J.C., and K.K. Johnson. 2015. “Estimation of risk management effects on revenue and purchased feed costs on U.S. dairy farms.” Journal of Dairy Science, Vol. 98(9):6588-6596. 7. Manning, D.T., and J.C. Hadrich. 2015. “An Evaluation of the Social and Private Efficiency of Adoption: Anaerobic Digesters and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation.” Journal of Environmental Management Vol 154:70-77. 8. Arthur, B. and A.L. Katchova. 2015. “Accrual Anomaly for Agribusiness Stocks.” Agribusiness: An International Journal 31, 3 (2015):372-387. 9. Nehring, R., J. Gillespie, A.L. Katchova, C. Hallahan, J.M. Harris, and K. Erickson. 2015. “What’s Driving U.S. Broiler Farm Profitability?” International Food and Agribusiness Management Review 18,A(2015):59-78. 10. Escalante, C.L., Y.Wu, and X. Li. 2015. “Organic Farms’ Seasonal Farm Labor Sourcing Strategies in the Pre-“Arizona” Mode of Immigration Control.” Applied Economics Letters, Available online http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Ygebe6E4MXzPRDXhaZbb/ full#.VcObYk13upo 11. Jones, G., C.L. Escalante, and H. Rusiana. 2015. "Reconciling Information Gaps in Organic Farm Borrowers' Dealings with Farm Lenders." Agricultural Finance Review. Forthcoming in 2015. 12. Wu, Y., C.L. Escalante, and X. Li. 2015. “Business Maturity and Technical Efficiency: Evidence from Chinese and Indian Microfinance Institutions”.” Enterprise Development and Microfinance. Forthcoming in 2015. 13. Escalante, C.L., G. Kostandini, and E. Mykerezi. 2015. “The Decentralization of Immigration Enforcement and Implications for Agriculture.” Choices, 29(1). Available at http://www.choicesmagazine.org. 14. Epperson, J.E. and C.L. Escalante. 2015. “The Eurozone Crisis and the Valuation of U.S. Food Companies.” Journal of Agribusiness, 31(1/2): 109-116. 15. Watson, M., C.L. Escalante, and G. Ames. 2015. “Motivations and Challenges in Farm to School Participation: Nutritional versus Food Hardship Considerations.” Journal of Agribusiness, 31(1/2): 47-64. 16. Kostandini, G., E. Mykerezi, and C.L. Escalante. 2015. “The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on the Farming Sector.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 96: 172-192. 17. Koirala, K.H., Ashok K. Mishra, J.M D’Antoni, and J. Mehlhorn. 2015. “Energy Prices and Agricultural Commodity Prices: Testing Correlation Using Copulas Method.” Energy Journal, Vol. 81(1): 430-436. 18. Schaible, G.D., Ashok K. Mishra, D. M. Lambert, and G. Panterov. 2015. “Factors Influencing Environmental Stewardship in U.S. Agriculture: Conservation Program Participants vs. Non-Participants.” Land Use Policy, Vol. 46: 125-141. 19. Mottaleb, K.A., S. Mohanty, and Ashok K. Mishra. 2015. “Intra-Household Resource Allocation under Negative Income Shock: A Natural Experiment.” World Development, Vol. 66(Feb.): 557-571. 20. Mishra, Ashok K., K.A. Mottaleb, A. R. Khanal, and S. Mohanty. 2015. “Abiotic Stress and Its Impact on Production Efficiency: The Case of Rice Farming in Bangladesh” Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, Vol. 199: 146-153. 21. Mottaleb, K.A., M. Gumma, Ashok K. Mishra, and S. Mohanty. 2015. “Quantifying Production Losses due to Drought and Submergence of Rainfed Rice at the Household Level Using Remotely Sensed MODIS data.” Agricultural Systems, Vol. 137: 227–235. 22. D’Antoni, J.M., Ashok K. Mishra, and A. R. Khanal. 2015. “Effect of Health Insurance Coverage on Labor Allocation: Evidence from US Farm Households.” Health Economics Review Journal, Vol. 4(19): 1-11. 23. Mishra, Ashok K., K.A. Mottaleb, and S. Mohanty. 2015. “Impact of Off-Farm Income on Food Consumption Rural Bangladesh: An Unconditional Quantile Regression Approach” Agricultural Economics: An International, Vol. 46(2): 139-148. 24. Khanal, A.R., Ashok K. Mishra, and K.H Koirala. 2015. “Access to the Internet and Financial Performance of Small Business Households” Electronic Commerce Research, Volume 15, (2):159-175 Selected Grants and Contracts: 1. USDA-APHIS: Cost of Mastitis in U.S. Dairy Herds. Total Grant: $31,604. Hadrich: PI, APHIS Collaborators: J. Lombard and K. Johnson. 2. USDA-APHIS: Feed and Milk Truck Network Analysis. Total Grant: $65,911. Hadrich: PI, APHIS Collaborators: J. Lombard and A.D. Hagerman. 3. Competitive Benchmarking: Assisting New York and Ohio Livestock and Crop Producers to Increase Profitability and Manage Risk in a Volatile Environment – Renewal. PI: M. Baker, D. Shoemaker, J. Ifft, A.L. Katchova, and B. Ward, USDA-Farm Business Management and Benchmarking Program, $168,488, 2015-2016. 4. Southern SARE. “The Sustainability of Organic Farms under the H2A Program: Evaluating the Program’s Effects on Mitigating Farm Labor Shortages and Maintaining Business Viability.” $100,740 (April 2015-March 2017). 5. Co-Principal Investigator (Fannin and Mishra), “Preparing Local Governments to be Financially Resilient to Natural Disasters.” Funded for $150,000 (2015-2017). Funded by Louisiana Sea Grant Community Resilience, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce. 6. Co-Principal Investigator (Barbato, Holton and Mishra), “Feasibility Study for Low-Cost Hurricane-Resistant Residential Buildings made of Earth Blocks” Funded for $35,000 (2014-2015). Funded by LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio. 7. Principal Investigator (Mishra), “The Changing Structure of Retail Food Stores and Its Impact on Direct Marketing” funded for $20,000 (2014-2015). Funded by Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington DC. 8. Principal Investigator (Mishra), “Domestic Commodity Support: Usage by Households, Credit Implications, and Economic Impacts” funded for $15,000 (2014-2015). Funded by Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington DC. 9. Effects of Energy and Commodity Prices on Crop Patterns and the Ogallala Aquifer under Alternative Policy Scenarios,” funded through USDA/NIFA for $499,976. Project PI: Chatura Ariyaratne and Co-PIs: Jeffrey M. Peterson, Nicolas Quintana Ashwell, Nathan P. Hendricks, Billy B. Golden, and Brian C. Briggeman in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University, 2014.