Browsing by Author "Graff, Gregory, advisor"
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Item Embargo Climate change, soil carbon sequestration, and agricultural technology adoption: the case of deeper root system corn adoption and diffusion in the U.S. Corn Belt(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Al Maamari, Aaisha, author; Graff, Gregory, advisor; Mooney, Daniel, committee member; Hill, Alexandra, committee member; McKay, John, committee memberTraditional agricultural practices and land use changes have resulted in greenhouse gas emissions back into the atmosphere, which negatively contributes to climate change. Traditional practices also reduce soil organic matter including soil carbon which is essential for soil health, maintenance of soil biological processes, and environmental sustainability. Currently, a range of agricultural conservation practices has come to be recommended and incentivized for soil carbon sequestration by either increasing carbon inputs and/or reducing carbon losses. These include practices such as reduced tillage, cover cropping, and crop rotations. Although private carbon markets have taken the initiative to provide incentive payments for carbon sequestration in agriculture, the adoption of SCS practices can be hindered by different socioeconomic, farm operational, and environmental constraints. In addition to currently recommended soil management practices, new crop genetic innovations, including perennial grain crops and annual crops, such as corn, with larger root systems or deep root traits are emerging as additional examples of SCS frontier technologies. The first chapter of this dissertation utilizes a joint adoption model to hypothetically examine the impact of socioeconomic, environmental, and farm variables on the probability of adopting either or both of currently recommended SCS practices and these novel genetic innovations, such as deeper root corn varieties. Moreover, deeper root system traits are expected to maintain yields under drought conditions. Deeper root system hybrids are also expected to be an effective agricultural technology for maintaining soil health as they can reduce soil erosion and increase soil organic matter. Existing drought tolerant (DT) corn varieties that have been commercially marketed for more than 10 years exhibit some of these same characteristics. Therefore, the adoption of existing DT hybrids is likely a good indication of the potential for the adoption of hybrids with further enhanced root systems. In the second chapter, we use state-level and field-level data for corn planted in the United States Corn Belt to examine the influence of climate change, soil characteristics, and production practices in the decision to adopt DT varieties. Seed industry data indicates that 44 percent of Corn Belt planted corn acres were allocated to a DT variety in 2021 and 58 percent were planted to DT in 2022. Results suggest that exposure to recent years' drought is a significant determinant of the adoption of DT corn. DT corn is more likely to be adopted in non-irrigated fields. We find that western Corn Belt states are more likely to increase the share of DT corn acres compared to eastern and central Corn Belt states, associated with lower precipitation values and higher drought severity. Thus, deeper root varieties are likely to be more attractive to farmers in western more arid regions of the Corn Belt, where associated soil carbon benefits of deeper root varieties are likely to be more limited. Anticipating that enhanced deeper root corn hybrids with public benefits may come to be treated as a conservation practice included under incentive payment programs, and understanding that soil carbon potential is heterogeneous, in the third chapter we consider the question of spatial targeting of payments. We develop three per acre payment scenarios under the benefit optimization approach to estimate and compare the metric tons of carbon inset under an optimal cropland acre enrolled in a carbon incentive program. The study uses cross section data for counties in the United States Corn Belt, a region with the largest number of productive cropland acres and higher potential carbon sequestration rates compared to other regions across the United States. Results show that if the carbon incentive program is designed to target the adoption of SCS practices that result in high, medium, and low SCS rates respectively, then we can expect that about 32, 24, and 19 million metric tons of carbon can be sequestered in Corn Belt croplands annually.Item Open Access Corn grower change for climate change: ex-ante economic analysis of adoption of enhanced root traits(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Giraud, Angelique, author; Graff, Gregory, advisor; Mooney, Daniel, committee member; McKay, John, committee memberSustainable agriculture technologies of enhanced root corn possess the potential to offset more than half of the greenhouse gas emissions of the transportation sector if completely diffused. Weather variability resulting from climate change is predicted to decrease agricultural productivity. Enhanced corn root traits aim to mitigate and adapt to climate change by improving drought tolerance and soil quality and increasing carbon sequestration rates. Encouraging adoption is challenging among heterogeneous corn growers in an enormous market. Previous research on farmer preferences around four categories of benefits stemming from adoption of corn with enhanced root traits frames the motivation to detail profit margins influencing business decisions utilizing a linear programming model. Several scenarios of changes to cost, revenue, carbon sequestration, and water scarcity are analyzed to provide guidance for policy. Results indicate that a corn grower will not choose enhanced root corn when the only benefit is carbon sequestration with cost and revenue as sole drivers of the decision to adopt. As water scarcity progresses, drought tolerance becomes increasingly valuable, substantially shifting production decisions in favor of adoption of corn with enhanced root traits.Item Open Access Economics, politics and ecology of biotechnology in Malaysian agriculture(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Suntharalingam, Chubashini, author; Graff, Gregory, advisor; Byrne, Patrick, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee member; Davies, Stephen, committee memberMalaysia has been moving from an agricultural, resource extraction, and manufacturing based economy in the 1980s toward a service-oriented, post-industrial, knowledge-based economy, with greater emphasis on skilled human capital, technology, and intangibles. Assessing Malaysia's current economic and policy regimes are crucial to help chart the next course of actions for Malaysia to set its economic goals. The patent landscape analysis showed Malaysia's economy evolution over the past six decades. Primarily dependent on the chemicals and petroleum sector between 1953 and 1985, the economy, currently is dependent on two sectors, i.e., electronics, semiconductors and computing, and chemicals and petroleum. Generally, the commercial sector dominates the patenting activities in Malaysia, in the economy wide patenting arena and also in the agbiotech and agchemicals technologies. High patenting trends by foreign commercial entities is to avoid imitations to their inventions in the Malaysian market attributable to their high FDI investment and export share. Within the agricultural sector, patents in agbiotech are relatively low and overshadowed by patents in agchemicals. The higher number of agchemicals technologies patented in Malaysia is due to the long history of European MNCs in Malaysia. And, the low number of agbiotech patented in Malaysia, mainly by non-commercial entities is due to two reasons: (1) misalignment of policies promoting the use of modern biotechnology in the Malaysian agricultural sector, and (2) ecological risks of cultivating transgenic crops in Malaysia, a rich-biodiversity country. A political economy framework was utilized in understanding the misalignment of policies promoting the use of modern biotechnology and examining the influence of relevant stakeholder groups on the decision making process concerning regulations overseeing the cultivation of transgenic crops. Two Malaysian Giant conglomerates, Sime Darby Berhad and Felda Holdings Berhad, dominate world palm oil exports and local oil production, and inevitably, have a strong policy influence of the Malaysian agricultural sector. The world's two dominant agchemicals players, Bayer and BASF, also play a major role in the agricultural policy making process in Malaysia. Bayer is one of the leading players that dominate the agchemicals patents in Malaysia. BASF, meanwhile has formed a strategic alliance with the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) and developed a new herbicide resistant Clearfield rice variety to tackle weedy rice outbreak in Malaysia. These two special interest pressure groups, oil palm and agchemicals producers face large welfare impact if Malaysia adopts transgenic crops. With risk of losing their market shares in Malaysia and their relatively small number, these groups have been able to converge and exercise influence over the stalled commercialization process of transgenic crops. The other reason attributable to the low number of granted agbiotech patents in Malaysia pertains to ecological risk concerning deployment of transgenic organisms on Malaysia's rich biodiversity. Scientific assessments carried out on transgenic rice and papaya suggest that transgenic rice and papaya lines can potentially exert positive and/or negative ecological impacts, i.e., non-target organisms, transgene escape, heteroencapsidation, and RNA recombination. However, the studies reviewed in this dissertation call for long-term assessments to determine the longer term impact of transgenic rice and papaya on non-target organisms and transgene escape. In addition to this, majority of ecological studies carried out on non-target organisms have been limited to third trophic interaction. Considering the fact that Malaysia is a mega-diversity country, ecological studies concerning higher trophic level are required to assess the impact transgenic rice and papaya has on these populations and the food-web dynamics. Studies on heteroencapsidation and RNA recombination of papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) resistant transgenic papaya is also limited even though PRSV-resistant transgenic papaya has been in the market for over fifteen years. Ultimately, while transgenic rice and papaya do carry ecological risks, the decision to cultivate these crops lies on the benefits brought upon by these crops. World food supplies demand intensive crop production due to increased population growth, climate change, pest and disease challenges, political unrest, deterioration of soil quality, drought and flood. Ultimately, the benefits and challenges in cultivating transgenic crops need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Cultivating transgenic crops has potential to decrease reliance on external inputs and reduce ecological risk. As such, until we can derive a balance between the two, we must strive to continue to improvise the transgenic technology to suit these two goals. For future research, it is recommended to determine the funding mechanisms of studies reviewed for the ecological assessments of transgenic rice and papaya in order to assess the objectivity of the study findings.