Roger A. Hinson

Understanding Ornamental Plant Market Shares to Rewholesaler, Retailer, and Landscaper Channels

Market channel alternatives that include garden centers, landscapers, mass merchandisers, and rewholesalers have contributed to the growth of ornamental crops sales in the United States. The impact of growers’ business characteristics on shares of sales to these channels by firm size was estimated using the two-limit Tobit model. Important explanatory variables were regions of the United States, sales of plant groups, kinds of contract sales, and channel diversity. There were important differences in behavior by grower size. Overall, the results indicate a stronger than expected role for the rewholesaler channel as a preferred channel for ornamental plant sales.

Transactions methods among US wholesale nurseries

Change of product ownership in competitive agricultural industries is a critical event, yet little research has examined the transaction methods used by firms and the corresponding factors that influence the choice of transaction method. A sample of landscape plant nurseries across the United States provided data to model this decision. Transaction methods included sales by telephone, personal visits, mail order, and at trade shows. In addition, factors that influenced negotiated sales were investigated. Influential factors included age of the business, size (as measured by gross sales), location, market channel use, ownership structure, and perspective on competitive situation. Using a tobit estimation procedure, profiles of nursery firms more likely to use a particular transaction method were developed.

IRRIGATION WATER SOURCES AND IRRIGATION APPLICATION METHODS USED BY U.S. NURSERY PRODUCERS

We examine irrigation water sources and irrigation methods used by U.S. nursery plant producers using nested multinomial fractional regression models. We use data collected from the National Nursery Survey (2009) to identify effects of different firm and sales characteristics on the fraction of water sources and irrigation methods used. We find that regions, sales of plants types, farm income, and farm age have significant roles in what water source is used. Given the fraction of alternative water sources used, results indicated that use of computer, annual sales, region, and the number of IPM practices adopted play an important role in the choice of irrigation method. Based on the findings from this study, government can provide subsidies to nursery producers in water deficit regions to adopt drip irrigation method or use recycled water or combination of both. Additionally, encouraging farmers to adopt IPM may enhance the use of drip irrigation and recycled water in nursery plant production.

Structural Change Implications for Small Farms: Discussion

Gebremedhin and Christy focus on agriculture’s trend toward concentration and industrialization, and how small farms may be affected by the mostly unintended consequences of government policy. They identify a set of forces that may move smaller farmers out of agriculture, resulting in social costs both to individuals and families forced to change occupations and homes, and to their communities. Agricultural economists and rural sociologists have a long-running concern with this issue. The decline in farm numbers was well underway by 1950, as documented in Gebremedhin and Christy’s table 1. In a 1957 study, Bolton documented and examined the decline in farm numbers as part of Louisiana’s low farm income problem, initially devoting attention to the number of small farms and categorization for analysis. He observed that limited resources constrain farm income and that nonfarm income was an important component of family income. The 1970s and 1980s saw a surge of interest in small farms. Gebremedhin and Christy document this interest through the better known writings of that period-particularly West; Carlin and Crecink; Lewis; Marshall and Thompson; Schertz; Tweeten; and others. The rapid disappearance of small farms brought policy attention and resulted in program changes that will be documented later. Nevertheless, the total number of farms and, according to Gebremedhin and Christy, a disproportionate number of small

Evaluation of Selected Fresh Vegetable Terminal Markets: A Stochastic Dominance Approach

Vegetable production can offer a high-valued cash crop alternative. While returns may be high, vegetables are perceived to have more risk than conventional row crops. This study used stochastic dominance analysis to evaluate terminal market price risk for four vegetable crops across five market locations. Results from the analysis identify differences in efficient market selection depending on the form which price risk follows. While vegetables as a whole are considered risky, substantial differences in the type of terminal market price variability existed between the commodities.

Market channel selections by US nursery plant producers: a multivariate nonparametric fractional regression analysis

ABSTRACT Availability of market channel alternatives has helped the growth of ornamental plant sales in the United States. To identify the factors affecting the choice and allocation of outputs to different market channels by nursery producers, we first use a mixture of experts model to select clusters of homogenous subpopulations of US nursery producers based on a 2009 National Nursery Survey. The impact of growers’ business characteristics on shares of sales to these channels was estimated using multivariate parametric and nonparametric fractional regression models. Specification tests indicated a nonparametric model was superior to a parametric model in some clusters. Important explanatory variables affecting the sales volume to different channels were sales of plant groups, kinds of contract sales, promotional expenses, and farm size. Results indicated the existence of clear market segmentation of nursery producers in the United States.