Instant Insights: Economics of agriculture
About this ebook
The first chapter describes the economic potential for the widespread adoption of agricultural robotics worldwide, focussing primarily on adoption in low- and middle-income countries. The chapter also considers the broader implications of agricultural robotics adoption on the farm sector.
The second chapter explores the large and diverse literature on the economics of nitrogen in agriculture and the economics of off-farm impacts from nitrogen fertilisation. The chapter also considers the over-application of nitrogen fertilisers and their contribution to nitrogen pollution.
The third chapter summarises recent advances in the development of novel integrated weed management (IWM) strategies and the economic consequences of their use in farming systems. The chapter also reviews the economics of different IWM strategies and the contrasting approaches used to assess their efficiency.
The final chapter discusses the use of groundwater for agricultural use and how unregulated overdevelopment of this key resource poses a threat to its sustainability. This chapter presents several approaches to groundwater governance and evaluates the appropriateness of each approach using socioeconomic theory.
About the author
Professor James Lowenberg-DeBoer holds the Elizabeth Creak Chair in Agri-Tech Applied Economics at Harper Adams University (HAU), Newport, Shropshire, UK. He is responsible for economics in the Hands Free Farm (HFF) team at HAU. He is also past president of the International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA) and was co-editor of the journal Precision Agriculture 2016-2022. His research focuses on the economics of agricultural technology, especially precision agriculture and crop robotics. Lowenberg-DeBoer’s research and outreach is founded in hands-on experience in agriculture, including production of maize and soybeans in NW Iowa in the USA.
David Pannell is Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Western Australia; Director, Co-Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy; ARC Federation Fellow (2007-2012); Distinguished Fellow and past president of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society; Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia; and a Director of Natural Decisions Pty Ltd. His research includes the economics of land, water and nature conservation; environmental policy; farmer adoption of conservation practices; risk; and economics of farming systems. David has won awards for his research in the USA, Australia, Canada and the UK, including the 2009 Eureka Prize for Interdisciplinary Research.
