Precision farming enables agricultural management decisions to be tailored spatially and temporally. Site-specific sensing, sampling, and managing allow farmers to treat a field as a heterogeneous entity. Through targeted use of inputs, precision farming reduces waste, thereby cutting both private variable costs and the environmental costs such as those of agrichemical residuals. At present, large farms in developed countries are the main adopters of precision farming. But its potential environmental benefits can justify greater public and private sector incentives to encourage adoption, including in small-scale farming systems in developing countries. Technological developments and big data advances continue to make precision farming tools more connected, accurate, efficient, and widely applicable. Improvements in the technical infrastructure and the legal framework can expand access to precision farming and thereby its overall societal benefits.

Purpose -The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of agricultural policy reformspecifically the change from market to direct payment support -on income variability of Swiss farming households. In addition, the observed heterogeneity in income risks across farms and time is explained in terms of farm and regional characteristics. Design/methodology/approach -Unbalanced farm-level panel data of the Swiss farm accountancy network (FADN) are used to construct coefficients of variation of five-year overlapping time intervals for total household income and gross farm revenues over the period 1992 to 2009. Linear fixed effect models are applied to measure the effect of specialization, off-farm income, direct payments, farm size, and liquidity on the variability of gross farm revenues and household income in the valley, hill, and mountain regions. Findings -The switch from market-based support to direct payments has decreased the variability of farm revenues and household income. The strong reliance on direct payments serves as insurance for most farmers and reduces both household income and revenue risk. Off-farm income can be used by farmers to reduce household income risk but it increases revenue risk in the valley regions. In all of the regions considered, farm size has a positive effect on household income risk and a negative effect on revenue risk. A high degree of specialization increases both gross revenue and household income risk. Potential revenue insurance contracts should specify farmers' off-farm employment, the degree of specialization, farm size, and regional specific risk profiles. Originality/value -This paper assesses the complementary effects of specific farm characteristics and risk management strategies with regard to both farm revenue and household income risk. Influences of agricultural policy changes on income risks are also empirically assessed at different spatial scales.

This paper reviews the evidence on the socio-economic impacts of GM crops and analyzes whether there are patterns across space and time. To this end, we investigate the effect of GM crops on farm-level costs and benefits using global data from more than one decade of field trials and surveys. More specifically, we analyze the effects of GM-crops on crop yields, seed costs, pesticide costs, and management and labor costs and finally gross margins. Based on collected data from studies on Bt cotton and Bt maize, statistical analyses are conducted to estimate the effect of GM crop adoption on these parameters. Our results show that, compared to conventional crops, GM crops can lead to yield increases and can lead to reductions in the costs of pesticide application, whereas seed costs are usually substantially higher. Thus, the results presented here do support the contention that the adoption of GM crops leads on average to a higher economic performance, which is also underlined by the high adoption rates for GM crops in a number of countries. However, the kind and magnitude of benefits from GM crops are very heterogeneous between countries and regions, particularly due to differences in pest pressure and pest management practices. Countries with poor pest management practices OPEN ACCESS

This is the accepted version of a paper published in the European Review of Agricultural Economics. This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proofcorrections or journal pagination.

Increasing concerns with income risks in agriculture have led to discussions on the introduction of an Income Stabilisation Tool (IST) in Europe. In this note, we extend existing evaluations of the IST by investigating the potential effect of the IST on inequality in farm incomes using Swiss agriculture as a case study. We find that the IST will significantly reduce income inequality, in particular by increasing lower quantiles of the income distribution. This property constitutes a value-added of the IST that is not yet considered in the current policy debate.

A series of food safety incidents has led to low levels of trust in the safety of domestically produced Chinese infant milk formula. Concerned parents in China increasingly source 'foreign-produced' brands and use a range of authenticity cues as assurance of the safety and authenticity of infant formula products. However, the effectiveness of authenticity cues in providing assurance to Chinese consumers has not been evaluated. The aim of this study is to analyse the importance of various authenticity cues for infant milk product choices. Latent class models were used to analyse responses to an online choice experiment with 350 consumers of European infant formula in three Chinese cities: Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu. The model included respondents' preferences for different labels, authenticity cues and price along with perceptions, attitudes, and socio-demographic characteristics. We identified two consumer segments, with one preferring lower priced infant formula and the second choosing higher priced products. All authenticity cues, including price, appear to serve as indicators of food quality and safety, and all were found to be highly important information sources for the respondents when making purchase decisions. In general, Chinese consumers are prepared to pay a premium for authenticity assurance. Chinese policy makers and the infant formula industry should continue to improve quality control systems to increase consumers' trust in food value chains. These control systems should comprise the whole food supply chain, from production to marketing, and should focus on building trust and communicating credibility.

This study investigated how agricultural policy reforms, including market liberalization and market deregulation, have influenced gross revenue risk of Swiss dairy producers using farm-level panel data between 1990 and 2009. Based on detrended data, variance decomposition was applied to assess how output prices and yields contributed to revenue risk over 3 different periods: the whole period (1990-2009), the first decade (1990-1999), and the second decade (1999-2009). In addition, the effect of expected changes in animal-based support for roughage-consuming cattle and price volatility on revenue risk was evaluated using a simulation model. Prices were the main contributor to revenue risk, even if the importance of yield risk increased over time. Swiss dairy producers can profit from natural hedge but market deregulation and market liberalization have reduced the natural hedge at the farm level. An increase in price volatility would substantially increase revenue risk and would, together with the abandonment of direct payments, reduce the comparative advantage of dairy production for risk-averse decision makers. Depending on other available risk management strategies, price risk management instruments might be a valuable solution for Swiss dairy producers in the future.

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