Date Available

6-5-2013

Year of Publication

2013

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Document Type

Master's Thesis

College

Agriculture

Department/School/Program

Agricultural Economics

First Advisor

Dr. Carl R. Dillon

Second Advisor

Dr. Jack Schieffer

Abstract

This thesis examines the economic and environmental impacts that precision agriculture technologies (PATs) can have on the carbon footprint of a grain farm. An analysis is offered using two manuscripts. The first examines the impacts of three PATs and compares the findings to a conventional farming method. It was found that all three PATs investigated showed a potential Pareto improvement over conventional farming. The second manuscript expanded the model used previously to in order to develop a process to construct a carbon efficient frontier (CEF). The model employed examined uniform and variable rate technologies. In addition to the CEF, a marginal abatement cost curve was constructed. Using these curves in a complementary fashion, more accurate information on the adaptive behavior of farmer technology adoption can be gleaned. the information gleaned for the two manuscripts can give both producers and policy makers the analytical tools needed to make more information decisions with regard to economic and environmental feasibility of PATs.

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