Estimating Crop Rotations as Dynamic Cycles using Field Data

Duncan MacEwan and Richard E. Howitt

No 103635, 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: Crop rotation systems are an important part of agricultural production for managing pests, diseases, and soil fertility. Recent interest in sustainable agriculture focuses on low input-use practices which require knowledge of the underlying dynamics of production and rotation systems. Polices to limit chemical application depending on proximity to waterways and flood management require field-level data and analysis. Additionally, supply elasticity estimates based on crop production as independent activities omit the dynamic effects of a cyclical rotation. We estimate a dynamic programming model of crop rotation which incorporates yield and cost inter-temporal effects in addition to field-specific factors including salinity and soil quality. Using an Optimal Matching algorithm from the Bioinformatics literature we determine empirically observed rotations using a geo-referenced panel dataset of 14,000 fields over 13 years. We estimate the production parameters which satisfy the Euler Equations of the field-level rotation problem and solve an empirically observed four-crop rotation.

Keywords: Crop Production/Industries; Production Economics; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea11:103635

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.103635

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