Bernard Kilian

Estimating Site-Specific Nitrogen Crop Response Functions

Confirming the precision agriculture hypothesis for variable-rate N applications (VRAs) is challenging. To confront this challenge, researchers have used increasingly sophisticated statistical models to estimate and compare site-specific crop response functions (SSCRFs). While progress has been made, it has been hampered by the lack of a conceptual framework to guide the development of appropriate statistical models. This paper provides such a framework and demonstrates its utility by developing a heteroscedastic, fixed and random effects, geostatistical model to test if VRA can increase N returns. The novelty of the model is the inclusion of site, spatial, treatment, and treatment strip heteroscedasticity and correlation. Applied to data collected in 1995 from two corn (Zea mays L.) N response experiments in south-central Minnesota, results demonstrate the importance of including site, spatial, treatment, and treatment strip effects in the estimation of SSCRFs. Results also indicate a significant potential for VRA to increase N returns and that these potential returns increase as the area of the management unit decreases. At one location, there was greater than a 95% chance that VRA could have increased profitability if the cost of implementing VRA was less than

Economic Sustainability—Price, Cost, and Value

14.5 ha -1 . At the other location, if implementation costs were less than

Rechtliche und agrarumweltpolitische Maßnahmen zur Erreichung unterschiedlicher Stufen der Nachhaltigkeit der Landbewirtschaftung

48.3 ha -1 , there was greater than a 95% chance of increased profitability.

Indicators to compare and assess the institutional strength of voluntary sustainability standards in the global coffee industry

Abstract Among the most pressing threats to the global coffee trade are a widening gap between supply and demand, an exodus of young farmers, and the impact of climate change. If these and other factors, including economic volatility, are simply ignored, the industry faces a challenging future. This chapter uses the price , cost , and value of coffee as distinct but connected lenses to engender a deeper understanding of the economic challenges facing the sector. Taking this holistic view helps to emphasize how an obsession with price (at all levels of the value chain) is inhibiting improvement by relegating coffee to the status of a mere commodity. Although there is no panacea for the many challenges, we offer solutions built on data and models of economic theory. We aim to provoke both thought and action, advocating multilevel assistance to level the playing field for farmers trapped by systems that are failing, whereas trusting in the power of strong value propositions to foster innovation at the producer level. This chapter argues that solutions that truly work are likely to come from a shared belief in the creation of shared value . This chapter includes analyses from Fairtrade senior managers, global sustainability experts, and the son of a Colombian coffee farmer. To survive, the coffee industry must draw on its greatest asset—the creativity, entrepreneurship, and drive that exist from the bottom to the top of its unique and remarkable value chain.

Decision Processes in Introducing Hybrid Agricultural Plants: ECOM Coffee Group Case Study

Als Grundlage fur eine Bewertung rechtlicher und agrarumweltpolitischer Instrumente zur Erreichung unterschiedlicher Stufen der Nachhaltigkeit der Landbewirtschaftung diskutiert der Beitrag den Begriff Nachhaltigkeit. Nachhaltigkeit wird hier definiert als die Quantitat und Qualitat naturlicher Ressourcen, die die heutige Generation zukunftigen Generationen hinterlast. Der gesellschaftlich angemessene Grad der Nachhaltigkeit kann nur auf der Grundlage eines gesellschaftlichen Diskurses festgelegt werden. Dabei sind ressourcenrelevante Aspekte (Umweltstandards im Hinblick auf Trinkwasserschutz, vorsorgenden Gewasserschutz, Schutz der Atmosphare/Klimaschutz, Artenschutz und Biotopschutz, Schonung nicht erneuerbarer Energie- und Rohstoffvorrate) und kostenrelevante Aspekte (Marktordnungskosten, Kosten fur Ausgleichsmasnahmen, Administration- und Kontrollkosten, Einkommen der Landwirte und die Kosten fur die Verbraucher) simultan zu berucksichtigen, um abwagen zu konnen, ob die mit einer hoheren Nachhaltigkeit verbundenen Kosten sowie etwaige Verteilungswirkungen gesellschaftlich akzeptabel erscheinen. Eine vollstandige quantitative Abbildung des Entscheidungsproblems ist jedoch angesichts der vielfach unbekannten Wirkungszusammenhange nicht moglich. Daher fuhrt auch die Verwendung von quantitativen Modellen fur Teilanalysen des Gesamtproblems nur zu qualitativen Schlusfolgerungen.

Is sustainable agriculture a viable strategy to improve farm income in Central America? A case study on coffee

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled “The Voluntary Coffee Standard Index (VOCSI). Developing a composite Index to Assess and Compare the Institutional Strength of Mainstream Voluntary Sustainability Standards in the Global Coffee Industry” (Dietz et al., 2018) in press) [1]. The VOCSI presents the most detailed comparison all major voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) that currently exist in global coffee production. This Data in Brief contains the database that we have generated to set up the VOCSI. We publish this dataset in order to facilitate further critical or extended analyzes.

Can the Private Sector be Competitive and Contribute to Development through Sustainable Agricultural Business? A Case Study of Coffee in Latin America

Introduction In early 2010 executives of an international coffee exporting firm approached the agribusiness faculty of a well-known Central American business school for assistance in a decision to continue investing in the research and production of hybrid plants. The faculty assigned a five-person team of students to analyze the agribusiness chain and make recommendations. Based on the student analysis, a case study (shown in the Appendix) was developed for classroom discussion. The case was subsequently discussed among the faculty, the student research team, and the case protagonists. This paper is organized as follows. The first section describes the research design, which was developed by the students in response to the situation faced by the case protagonists. The second section presents the results of the research, based upon an analysis of the data in the appended case study. The third section is a discussion of the informing outcomes. Section four offers conclusions. The Research Design Given the low productivity of coffee growers in Mexico and Central America and the importance of this region to ECOM as a major coffee exporter in the region, company executives decided in 2003 to invest in a coffee renovation project using hybrid plants. The focus of the project, based in a research station in Nicaragua, was to achieve higher yields, greater economic benefits for producers, improved harmony with the environment, enhanced characteristics in the cup (tastes and aroma of brewed coffee), plants with a higher resistance to pests, and longer harvest periods through the use of hybrid plants. In undertaking this project, ECOM executives were searching for a strategy that would generate profits for the company while increasing monetary incentives for participating producers. To this end, they approached members of the agribusiness faculty of a well-known Central American business school for assistance. The faculty assigned a five-person team of students to gather data, conduct an analysis of the alternatives, and prepare recommendations. This research was conducted under faculty supervision. Based on their analysis of the data, two alternatives were identified. The first alternative, an increase in the current price of the hybrid coffee plants, resulted in an unfavorable outcome for producers, since the price at which the project would become profitable would leave producers with a negligible increase in profit margins; therefore, producers would have no incentive to opt for the renewal with hybrid coffee plants. As a second alternative, the student research team proposed that ECOM retain a percentage of the increase in production that the producers would obtain by renewing with hybrid plants. This alternative showed positive results for producers. The percentage retained, at which the project would become profitable, would leave the producers with a twenty percent increase in profit above that obtained by renewing with conventional plants. As a third alternative, ECOM could implement a mixed strategy that included increasing prices and defining a rate of retention. An analysis of the impact on profits for different participants in the agribusiness chain of the project revealed that by selling its hybrid plants in the final phase of plant development rather than at intermediate phases, investments in fixed assets for the members of the agribusiness chain would be diminished. These members did not have to invest in nursery facilities, but ECOM did, making it more difficult for the ECOM Project to become profitable. Thus an analysis of a strategy to recover ECOMs investment was performed. Finding that ECOM could ask a higher percentage of retention of the increases in production, the result was that the producers would have 18.6 percentage points more than if they renewed with conventional plants. Producers would now have an incentive to buy the product. To gather the information needed for this project, the student research group visited the laboratory in Nicaragua and the farm in charge of the production and distribution of the hybrid coffee plants. …