This paper examines the relative expected efficiency of four general strategies which have been proposed for achieving agricultural nonpoint pollution abatement. Emphasis is placed on the implications of differential information about the costs of changes in farm management practices, the impracticality of accurate direct monitoring, and the stochastic nature of nonpoint pollution. The possibility of using hydrological models to reduce, but not eliminate, the uncertainty about the magnitude of nonpoint loadings is incorporated into the analysis. The principal result is that appropriately specified management practice incentives should generally outperform estimated runoff standards, estimated runoff incentives, and management practice standards for reducing agricultural nonpoint pollution.

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The increasing trend of food scandal crises is not well followed in recent studies of spatial price transmission. This paper analyses the impact on the domestic market of an Aflatoxin M1 outbreak in the Serbian dairy sector during 2013/2014 using a spatial price transmission approach. Monthly farm milk prices in Serbia for the period 2007/2014 were contrasted with leading dairy exporting countries New Zealand, USA and Germany, which did not have a food scare in their dairy sectors. To estimate the impacts a Markov-switching vector error-correction model was utilized. For all four dairy markets the model identified two price change regimes: standard and extreme. Although it was predictable, an extreme regime was not identified during the Aflatoxin M1 crises in Serbia because of some specific characteristics of its dairy production. The results suggest that the Aflatoxin M1 outbreak ‘froze’ the Serbian dairy market and temporally disconnected it from the world milk market. Farmer’s prices fell below their long-run equilibrium levels. The total loss of the Serbian farm-level dairy sector during the crisis reached up to 96.2 million EUR. These ‘missed opportunity’ significantly slowed investment in the dairy sector.

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Objective-To assess the attitudes and behaviours of North Carolina tobacco farmers around crop diversification. Design-Cross-sectional telephone survey. Participants-Active tobacco farmers in 14 North Carolina counties (n = 1236), interviewed between January and April 1997 (91% response rate). Outcome measures-Interest in, experience with, and perceived barriers to diversification. Results-Most farmers (95%) grew/raised a commodity other than tobacco (mean = 2.8). A total of 60% of farmers expressed interest in trying other on-farm activities to supplement their tobacco and 60% reported taking action in the past year around supplementation. Younger age and college education were positively associated with interest. College education, oV-farm income, and larger farm size were associated with the number of actions taken. For perceived external barriers to diversification, use of tobacco, percent income from tobacco, lack of college education, and younger age were most strongly associated with the number of barriers. For internal barriers (personal factors), percent income from tobacco, use of tobacco, and lack of college education were most strongly associated with the number of barriers. Conclusions-Most farmers were involved in diverse operations and expressed interest in continuing to diversify, although the breadth of diversification was narrow. Farmers noted many barriers to diversifying. If conventional production and marketing techniques are employed for non-tobacco alternatives, these alternatives may not provide the sustainable profitability that tobacco has aVorded. Competition from foreign tobacco growers is the primary threat to the future of American growers and tobacco dependent communities. (Tobacco Control 1998;7:376-382)

Changes in the retail prices of pasteurised milk, purchase prices, and the price relationship between retail prices for pasteurised milk and other food products are analysed for Poland during the period from 2004–2018. In addition, the paper presents factors affecting changes in milk prices in Poland and characterises the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on the milk market. The adoption of a long period of analysis allows for the study of periods of both high and low variability. The data analysis uses various methods including the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test and the Autoregressive-Moving-Average Model (ARMA). The milk market showed significant response because it was one of the few that was strongly administered by the European Union. These policies led to a significant increase in milk prices in the analysed period. The average price of pasteurised food milk increased by 63% in 2003–2015, and the purchase farm price of milk increased by 91.74%. The situation changed when the production limits were eliminated after 2015. In the initial period after quotas ended, the price of milk decreased and then increased. Similar changes were observed in other EU countries. Even short-term fluctuations associated with economic crises did not significantly affect the milk market.

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