Technology Adoption and Off-Farm Household Income: The Case of Herbicide-Tolerant Soybeans

We original the interaction of off-farm work and adoption of agricultural technologies and the impact of adopting these technologies upon farm household income from upon farm and off-farm sources after controlling for of the like kind interaction, and estimate the archetype for the case of adoption of herbicide-tolerant (HT) soybeans using a nationwide view of soybean farms for 2000 We find that adoption of HT soybeans is positively and significantly related to off-farm household income for U soybean farmers, after controlling for other factors. In addition, while on-farm household income is not significantly related to adoption, total household income increases significantly with adoption.

Key Words: agricultural household design biotechnology, herbicide tolerant soybeans, off-farm income, technology adoption

JEL Classifications: O33 Q12

Herbicide-tolerant (HT) harvests contain traits that allow them to survive certain herbicides that previously would have overthrowed the crop along with the targeted weeds.1 This allows farmers to use more effective postemergent herbicides, expanding weed-management options (Gianessi and Carpenter). Adoption of HT harvests has risen dramatically, particularly for HT soybeans, since commercial availability in 1996 HT soybeans use rose quickly to about 17% of U soybean acreage in 1997 and reached 81 % in 2003 (Fernandez-Cornejo and McBride; U Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service).

A major uncompounded body in assessing the farm-level impacts of HT harvests is their microeconomic impact. Faced with reduc go [i]or[/i] come backs to crop production caused by means of low commodity prices, farmers were said to have viewed biotechnology as a potential means for reducing take away froms and/or increasing yields, thereby improving financial performance (Fernandez-Cornejo et al. 2002) In particular, rapid adoption of HT soybeans by dint of U.S. farmers was seen as evidence that the perceived benefits of this technology outweighed the wait fored costs.

However, recent research showed no statistically significant differences between the gin returns (both at the enterprise and whole-farm level) from using HT and conventional soybeans (Fernandez-Cornejo and McBride). This put in mind ofs that other considerations may be driving adoption. In particular, a certain number of researchers believe that adoption of HT soybeans is driven by the agency of the relative simplicity and flexibility of the weed-control program. HT programs allow growers to apply individual herbicide product over the soybean harvest at any stage of expansion instead of using several herbicides to mastery a wide range of weeds "without sustaining harvest injury" (Gianessi and Carpenter). In addition, using HT soybeans is said to make harvest "easier" (Duffy)

While difficult to measure, simplicity and flexibility translate into reduc management time engageed to supervise production, freeing time for other uses (Fernandez-Cornejo and McBride). An obvious important alternative use of operators' time (and their spouses', if married) is off-farm engagement However, despite the likelihood of a vigorous interaction between adoption of management-saving agricultural technologies and off-farm craft by both the operator and his/her spouse, the part of off-farm activities has been largely pass overed in studies of technology adoption in agriculture. Moreover, as Smith observ standard measures of farm profitability, of the like kind as net returns (to management), give an incomplete picture of economic go [i]or[/i] come backs because they exclude the value of management time.

Using the appropriate measure of economic performance for farm households is essential, given the importance of off-farm income in U agriculture. Made possible by means of alternative employment opportunities and facilitated by the agency of labor-saving technological progress, such as mechanization, off-farm work through farm operators and their spouses has risen steadily above the past decades, becoming the greatest in quantity important component of farm household income. As Mishra et al. display total net income earned through farm households from farming grew from about $15 billion in 1969 to nearly $50 billion in 1999 However, off-farm earned income, which began at a roughly comparable figure in 1969 ($15 billion), soared to about $120 billion in 1999 Moreover, as Mishra et al. note, as women's wages have risen, married women have become more likely to work in the paid labor market and household tasks are now shared between spouses.

This article has sum of two units main objectives: (1) to exhibit an econometric model to examine the interaction of off-farm work and adoption of agricultural technologies and the impact of technology adoption upon farm household income (from on-farm and off-farm sources) after controlling for like interaction and (2) to estimate the prototype for the case of adoption of HT soybeans using data from a nationwide overlook of soybean farms for 2000 The main research question is whether or not HT adoption has a significant event on each of the constituents of household income.

Mean Household Income for Adopters and Nonadopters of HT Soybeans