Progress 03/01/14 to 08/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience: Research economists, entomologists, weed scientists, and plant pathologists Agricultural chemical, seed industry, and agricultural retailer representatives Farmer cooperative representatives Farmers Environmental Protection Agency and United States Department of Agriculture personnel Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results have been presented at professional conferences,extension meetings, and to regulators. Results have been published in peer reviewed journals, as book chapters and working papers, and have been submitted for peer-review publication. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Crop protection trends in UScorn and soybean production have been increasingly integrated into a farmer's seed purchase. This has been accomplished by 1) genetically engineering (GE) corn and soybean seed with multiple insect resistance (IR) traits and multiple broad spectrum herbicide tolerance traits, and 2) treating seed with multiple insecticides, fungicides, or nematicides. While this one-size-fits-all approach to crop protection has provided many benefits to the chemical and seed industry, corn and soybean farmers, other farmers, and the environment, there are concerns that thebenefits are not sustainable. Reasons for concern include the emergence of herbicide resistant weeds, emergence of pesticide resistant insects, and decline in some pollinator and butterfly populations. The most prominent and immediate impact of this project was to increase the visibility of this trend among researchers, regulators, agribusinessand the public through a variety of presentation and publication outlets. An additional impact is an improved understanding offactors driving this trend that can be used to better predict its negative as well as positive consequences. With a better understanding of these factors, we have identified new strategies for shapingits future direction and promote more sustainable corn and soybean production, the goal of the project. Examples of these new strategies include the use of crop insurance as a substitute for chemical pesticides when the economic significance of the targeted pest is intermittent and localized, revisions of crop insurance rules to incentivize the adoption of weed best management and integrated pest management practices, development and support of pest monitoring networks such as the Integrated Pest Information or Extension and Education network (http://www.ipipe.org/) to guide the more selective deployment of IR traits and pesticide seed treatments, and the more rapid regulatory sun setting of older GE corn and soybean varieties that can be readily replaced by newly commercialized and more sustainable GE corn and soybean varieties. Below, we further review other specific areas of improved understanding in relation to the grant's overall goal and supporting objects. A better understanding of farmers' choices over alternative seed corn varieties formed the basis of Dr. Huichun Sun's second dissertation chapter. Dr. Sun was supported by the project working primarily on Supporting Objective 1 with Project Director (PD) Hurley and Co-PD Shi. Using proprietary seed sales data, she first descriptively characterized the evolution of the adoption of IR and HR corn seed traits from 1996 to 2014. Three interesting observations emerged from this analysis. First, for many Crop Reporting Districts (CRDs) in the U.S., there was a rapid adoption of multiple IR and HR traits and pesticide treated seed. Though, there remained minor corn production CRDs where older seed varieties with fewer integrated traits have predominated. Second, Herfindahl indices of market concentration at the CRD level suggest an increased diversity of IR and HR trait combinations over time. Third, Herfindahl indices of market concentration at the CRD level suggest decreased diversity in terms of the companies selling seed corn over time. The explanation of these somewhat paradoxical trends is that first generation GE seed corn varieties have remained on the market with the more integrated second and third generation varieties. The continued availability of first generation single IR trait seed corn after the release of pyramided multiple IR trait seed corn has long been considered a risk factor that can contribute to the more rapid evolution of resistant insects, which is one of the key challenges to sustainable corn production. After this more descriptive analysis, Dr. Sun analyzed farmer adoption trends in relation to whether the GE seed was stacked with multiple IR traits, multiple HR traits, or IR and HR traits; or pyramided with multiple IR traits targeting the same insect pest species. It also considered the number of years the seed had been available for production. The results showed that GE seed stacked with multiple IR and HR traits was substantially more valuable to farmers, which makes intuitive sense because these seed varieties provide a broader range of more flexible pest management options. While pyramiding traits also added value to farmers, this value was one-fifth the value of having multiple stacked traits. The pyramiding of IR traits currently provides two primary production benefits to farmers: less onerous regulatory requirements and a reduced risk of insect resistance. Therefore, the result that farmers' value pyramiding less than the stacking of multiple IR and HR traits also makes intuitive sense because the benefits accrue to fewer acres of corn and are delayed as well as uncertain. Finally, Dr. Sun finds that GE seed varieties that have been available longer are valued more by farmers, which is consistent with Co-PD Shi's previously published results. What this result indicates is that farmers have not become increasingly worried the sustainability of using GE seed varieties due to insect resistance, for example. Currently under peer review, one of Dr. Cornelia Ilin's dissertation chapters examined how the evolution of learning affects technology adoption in soybean production. Dr. Ilin is a former graduate student supported by the project who also worked on Supporting Objective 1 with Co-PD Shi. In her dissertation, she used a sequential adoption model that accounts for differences between forward-looking adopters, who consider the future impacts of their learning, and myopic adopters, who only consider past learning. She applies the analysis to three panels of U.S. soybean farmers representing different stages of the GE seed technology diffusion path. She showed that uncertainty was considerably reduced over time due to increased learning efficiency. The results indicated that a "forward-looking" model fits early adopter behavior better, while both models perform equally well for the late adopter behavior. Mr. Yuij Saikai led the development of an agent based model of the corn production system that can be used to explore crop protection decisions and their consequences in relation to more sustainable production. Mr. Saikai is a graduate student working with Co-PD Mitchell and PD Hurley on several projects over the past two years, including providing effort towards accomplishing Supporting Objective 2. In the agent based model, fields represent alternative management units. Each of these management units is operated by a farmer and includes its own pest complex. A pest complex is characterized by measures of pest abundance for possibly multiple species and susceptibility to alternative pesticides. There are multiple farmers in the production environment, each making decisions for multiple fields. A farmer's decisions for each field are currently based on the observed past profitability of farmers who have already adopted a particular pest management practice. These management choices affect pest survival, reproduction, and susceptibility to management in a field, and across fields as pest disperse across the landscape to other fields. The model is parameterized to match corn production in Wisconsin and used to evaluate the impact of using conventional corn refuge requirements versus taxes to promote more sustainable corn production. A particularly interesting result emerging from this analysis is that a combination refuge and tax policy provides the greatest benefits to farmers, and chemical and seed providers. Furthermore, the structure of this model is well suited to operationalizing a broader Corn Belt level analysis where the adoption models developed by Dr. Sun and Dr. Ilin can be integrated and substituted for the more rudimentary farmer decision model currently employ in our model.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Chavas, J.P., G. Shi, R. Nehring and K. Stiegert. 2018. The Effects of Biotechnology on U.S. Agriculture. Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 50: 387-407.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Chavas, J.P., G. Shi, and K. Stiegert. Pricing and Industry Structure when Demand Elasticity Changes. Revise and resubmit, Review of Industrial Organization.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Shi, G. and E. Young. An Analysis of Decision-Making Behavior: Farmer Adoption of Single-Traited and Stack-Traited GM Corn Seeds in the United States.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Zhang, W., G. Shi, and A. Meloyan. An Exploration of Product Choices in the US Corn Seed Market.
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Chavas, J.P., and P.D. Mitchell. 2018. Corn Productivity: The Role of Management and Biotechnology. Corn, London: InTech. Online: https://www.intechopen.com/books/corn-production-and-human-health-in-changing-climate/corn-productivity-the-role-of-management-and-biotechnology
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Sun, H. Reducing the Risk of Pesticide Resistance: Economic and Behavioral Factors Affecting U.S. Farmers Pesticide Use and Resistance Management
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Hurley, T.M. and H. Sun. Softening Shock and Awe Pest Management with IPM Principles. Resubmitted Journal of Integrated Pest Management.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Mitchell, P.D. 2018. Economic Logic of Risk-Based IPM. IPM for Early Season Pests Workshop, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, June 19-21, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Mitchell, P.D., N. Carey, J. Wilbur, and D. Smith. 2017. Parametrizing Bioeconomic Models of Soybean Pest/Pathogen Management with Small Plot Data (with). ASA/CSSA/SSSA International Meetings, Tampa, FL, Oct 22-25, 2017.
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Progress 03/01/17 to 02/28/18
Outputs
Target Audience: Research Economists and Entomologists. Seed corn and agricultural chemical industry representatives. Environmental Protection Agency and United States Department of Agriculture personnel. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been presented at professional conferences and have been submitted for peer-review publication. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The major objective remaining for the project is the integration of our economic model of Bt corn seed demand with a biological model of insect resistance. This will be the focus of the remaining three months of the project.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
With the graduation of Cornelia Lin, work on the project at the University of Wisconsin focused on recruiting two new students to work on the project. The first of these students worked with Huichun Sun, who funded on the project through the University of Minnesota, to estimate a demand model for Bt corn seed based on whether the seed included stacked (multiple toxin targeting different pests), pyramided (multiple toxin targeting the same pest), or both stacked and pyramided genetically engineered traits. The second student recruited to work with the project has been working with an agent based modeling framework to explore resistant management with corn rootworm targeted Bt corn. This student is now working with PI Hurley and Huichun Sun to incorporate the Bt seed demand model into a multi-pest, stacked and pyramided Bt corn, agent based model for managing resistance. Additionally, Huichun Sun has now completed her dissertation and will soon be leaving the project. The first half of this dissertation focused on weed resistance management and was supported by another USDA AFRI grant. The second half of her dissertation focuses on Bt seed demand and has been funded by this project.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Feng, J. and G. Shi. To Encore or Not: When a Patent Expires, Poster Presentation, 2018 AAEA Annual Meeting. Washington D.C.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Shi, G. and C. Ilin. 2018. Adoption vs. Diffusion: The Evolution of Learning in the U.S. Soybean Market.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Shi, G. and C. Ilin. Adoption vs. Diffusion: The Evolution of Learning in the U.S. Soybean Market, presented at ICABR 21st Conference, Berkeley, CA, June 2017.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Saikai, Y., and P.D. Mitchell. Agent-based model of Bt corn adoption and insect resistance management. Poster at American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, July 30-Aug 1, 2017.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Huichun Sun. 2018. Reducing the Risk of Pesticide Resistance: Economic and Behavioral Factors Affecting U.S. Farmers Pesticide Use and Resistance Management
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Hurley, T.M. Softening Shock & Awe Pest Management with IPM Principles. 9th International Integrated Pest Management Symposium. Baltimore, MD, March 20, 2018.
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Progress 03/01/16 to 02/28/17
Outputs
Target Audience: Research Economists, Entomologists,Weed Scientists, Ecologists Seed corn,agricultural chemical, and agricultural retailer industry representatives Farmer cooperative representatives United States Environmental Protection Agency and United States Department of Agriculture personnel Agrcultural research and regulatory agencies around the world (e.g., EMBRAPA in Brazil and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia) Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Funding from this grant has supported the work of threePh.D. students:two at the University of Wisconsin andoneat the University of Minnesota. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Presentation at academic and industry confrences in both the U.S. and Europe. Published conference and peer reviewed papers. University working papers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The graduate student working on the project from the University of Wisconsin is graduating this spring, so we will be hiring a new student to help work with the graduate student from the University of Minnesota to estimate farmer demand model for the bioeconomic simulation model. We will then work to merge this demand model with our population genetic model of the evolution of European corn borer (ECB) and corn rootworm (CRW) resistance to Bt corn. Once this integration is accomplished, the first question we will evaluate with the model is how the gradual introduction of pyramided insecticidal proteins affected the durability of Bt corn. The answer to this question will provide insight into whether the Australian strategy of the whole sale replacement of single toxin Bt seed with multi-toxin Bt crops is better for the technologies durability than the U.S. strategy of gradual replacement. We will then turn to the question of how continuing to deploy Bt corn targeted at both the ECB and CRW in regions where the ECB is no longer an economically significant pest increases the risk of resistance and agricultural productivity relative to simply deploying CRW Bt corn in these regions. This analysis will be important for determining the potential benefits of regulations or incentives that encourage the combination of Bt corn traits to be regionally tailored. While we had hoped to also incorporate the risk of herbicide resistant weeds into our analysis, delays in our development of a model of farmer demand for herbicide tolerant GM soybean seeds make the accomplishment of this analysis unlikely in the final year of the project.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Work at the University of Wisconsin focused on wrapping up the analysis of how market concentration in the seed industry can affect the dispersion of seed prices. This work showed that the impact of concentration depends crucially on whether there are supply constraints. When there are supply constraints, the typical result of increasing market concentration increasing prices need not hold across the entire distribution of prices--a result that is empirically confirmed using proprietary Gfk seed sales data. Additional analysis of the affect of learning on the adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops was also completed. This analysis explored two types of learning: forward looking and myopic backward looking. Forward looking learners understand how learning can benefit future decision making and adjust their decisions accordingly. Myopic learners simply look to the past for lessons and do not try to actively direct future learnings. The results of this analysis show that the type of learning that takes place depends on whether the GM crop technology is newly introduce or more mature in the market place. When the technology is new, myopic learning dominates. As the technology matures, forward looking learning becomes more important. Work at the University of Minnesota focused on identifying alternative policies for promoting insect resistance management and developing farmer corn seed demand models to incorporate into our bioeconomic model of the evolution of pest resistance. The policy analysis work built on the general modeling efforts accomplished during the initial years of the project. Specifically, the general model, which was developed to explore the tradeoffs between the certain and immediate costs and uncertain and delayed benefits of resistance management, was modified to focus how crop insurance and technological optimism (the belief that new technologies will be developed before resistance becomes too big of a problem) affect a farmer's incentive to manage resistance. The farmer demand work initially focused on estimating and Almost Ideal Demand system using Gfk data. The student leading this work successfully defended her dissertation proposal this past year where she was also given advice to consider alternative farmer demand models that may be better suited to objective of the research. While we were not able to do as much integration of the modeling work at Wisconsin and Minnesota as we had planned, Minnesota participants made multiple trips to Wisconsin this past year to work jointly on the Gfk data analysis. Finally, we secured a one-year no cost extension to give us more time to complete our work.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Hurley, T.M. (2016). Shock and Awe Pest Management: Time for Change. Choices. Online at www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-articles/herbicide/shock-and-awe-pest-management-time-for-change.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Tinsley, N, P.D. Mitchell, R. Wright, L. Meinke, R. Estes, M. Gray. 2015. Estimation of Efficacy Functions for Products Used to Manage Corn Rootworm Larval Injury. Journal of Applied Entomology doi: 10.1111/jen.12276.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Milne, A.M, J.R. Bell, W.D. Hutchison, F. van den Bosch, P.D. Mitchell, D. Crowder, S. Parnell, and A.P. Whitemore. 2015. The effect of farmers decisions on pest control with Bt crops: a billion dollar ecology game. PLoS Computational Biology 11(12): e1004483. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004483.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Ilin, C. and G. Shi, Competition, Price Dispersion and Capacity Constraints: The Case of the U.S. Corn Seed Industry. European Association for Research in Industrial Organization (EARIE), Lisbon, Portugal
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Ilin, C. and G. Shi, Competition, Price Dispersion and Capacity Constraints: The Case of the U.S. Corn Seed Industry. Annual Conference of Swiss Economists Abroad, University of Bern, Switzerland
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Ilin, C. and G. Shi, Competition, Price Dispersion and Capacity Constraints: The Case of the U.S. Corn Seed Industry. Agricultural and Applied Economic Association Meeting (AAEA), Boston, Massachusetts
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Mitchell. P.D. and Y. Saikai. An Agent-Based Model of Bt Corn Adoption and Insect Resistance Management. Monsanto Corn Academic Summit, Feb 22, 2017, St. Louis, MO
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Hurley, T.M. (2017). Slutsky, Let Me Introduce You to Arrow-Pratt: Competitive Price Effects with Uncertain Production.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Huichun, H. and T.M. Hurley (2017). Can federal crop insurance be leveraged to encourage farmer adoption of pesticide resistance management practices? Selected Paper: AAEA Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Hurley, T.M., Socio-economic barriers to the durable deployment of Bt crops: Can they be knocked down? XXV International Congress of Entomology, Orlando, FL. September 30, 2016.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Hurley, T.M., Understanding How Market Structure Affects Pest Resistance to Enhance Sustainable Corn and Soybean Production. USDA-NIFA AFRI Project Directors Meeting, Agricultural Economics and Rural Communities, AAEA Post-Conference Workshop. Boston, MA. August 3, 2016.
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Progress 03/01/15 to 02/29/16
Outputs
Target Audience: Farmers and Agricultural Professionals Regulatory Professionals in Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency Regulatory Professionals in US Environmental Protection Agency Seed and Chemical Industry Regulatory Professionals Extension Educators Academic and Industry Research Agricultural Economists, Entomologists, and Weed Scientists Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project results have been disseminated through ESA and AAEA conference presentations, extension presentations,meetings with US EPA and Canadian PRMA administrators, and meeting with industry research and regulatory professionals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Moving into the New Year we are planning to start integrating the Wisconsin and Minnesota team efforts as we further refine our seed corn market analysis and bioeconomic model development. We plan to start to develop the soybean seed market analysis and how it impacts seed corn markets. We also plan to start exploring alternative models of the research and discovery process to see if they are applicable to our research efforts. Our intention is to request a no cost extension given the delays in the project that emerged with the departure of Mike Livingston from the Economic Research Service.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The University of Wisconsin part of our research team has made substantial progress toward estimating a demand model of imperfect competition in the seed corn industry and its effect on the market concentration of the different types of Bt toxins used to control corn rootworm and European corn borer pests. The University of Minnesota part of the research team made substantial progress towards developing the modelling capacity to assess how the market concentration of the different types of Bt toxins affects the rate of evolution of pest resistance to these individual toxins. This analysis raised new questions regarding how to effectively measure the ecological consequences of evolving resistance to pesticides when there are several pests each being targeted by several toxins. So far the literature has focused on individual toxins. We are currently exploring how our model can be modified to treat the farming industry's pest management portfolio as a depreciable asset. The rate at which the industry's portfolio depreciates depends crucially on how it is deployed (e.g., sequential versus concurrent release of toxins and use of concepts like refuge to slow the evolution of resistance). The rate at which this asset can be renewed depends on costly investments in new modes of action and other pest management practices which has lead us to the conclusion that we may need to incorporate some aspects of the research and discovery process into our current modeling efforts.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Dong, F., P.D. Mitchell, T. Hurley and G. Frisvold. 2016. Quantifying Adoption Intensity for Weed Resistance Management Practices and Its Determinants among U.S. Soybean, Corn, and Cotton Farmers. Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. 41(1):42-61.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Milne, A.M, J.R. Bell, W.D. Hutchison, F. van den Bosch, P.D. Mitchell, D. Crowder, S. Parnell, and A.P. Whitemore. The effect of farmers decisions on pest control with Bt crops: a billion dollar ecology game. PLoS Computational Biology. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004483 .
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Andow, D.A., S.G. Pueppke, A.W. Schaafsma, A.J. Gassman, T.W. Sappington, L.J. Meinke, P.D. Mitchell, T.M. Hurley, R.L. Hellmich, and R.P. Porter. 2015. Early Detection and Mitigation of Resistance to Bt Maize by Western Corn Rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). Journal of Economic Entomology. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jee/tov238
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Field-Level Economic Benefits of Neonicotinoid Seed Treatments in Corn and Soybean (with Nicholas Tinsley and Nicola Wille). Entomology Society of America Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, Nov. 15-18, 2015.
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Progress 03/01/14 to 02/28/15
Outputs
Target Audience:Research Economists, Entomologists, and Weed Scientists Seed corn and agricultural chemical industry representatives. Environmental Protection Agency and United States Department of Agriculture personnel. Changes/Problems:Progress on this project has been slowed due to the departure of Dr. Mike Livingston from the ERS. Dr. Livingston was committed by the ERS to help project GRAs navigate ARMS data and develop models of farmer behavior. Given his departure, we now need to find an alternative route for developing and parameterizing these models. Prof. Hurley has temporarily acquired remote access to ARMS data through another project. Thus, a potential strategy for responding to Dr. Livingston's departure is to reallocate project funds that were intended for travel to D.C. to maintaining Prof. Hurley's (and his student's) remote access to ARMS data. Another alternative is to identify a new collaborator at the ERS to work on this project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presentations: The changing seed and farm landscape: What are the implications for managing resistance? Organized Symposium. Entomological Society of America 62nd Annual Meeting. Portland, OR, November 18, 2014. Deploying Technologies to Manage Biotic and Abiotic Risks. Embrapa-Agropensa Meeting, Brasillia, Brazil, August 20, 2014. Enhancing Global Food Security Through More Sustainable Pest And Disease Management. 248th American Chemical Society National Meeting. San Francisco, CA, August 13, 2014. Profitability of Alternative Management Strategies for Corn Rootworm. Monsanto Corn Academic Summit. St. Louis, MO, February 16, 2015. Meeting Participation: Annual NC-205 (Ecology and Management of European Corn Borer and Other Lepidopteran Pests of Corn) and NCCC46(Development, Optimization, and Delivery of Management Strategies for Corn Rootworms and Other Below-ground Insect Pests of Maize) Meetings What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The GRA at UWI will continue working with proprietary data to better understand seed industry pricing strategies. In particular, the potential for spatial market power driven by advantages some companies have in terms of background germ plasm that is locally adapted. We expect to negotiate access to additional years of this proprietary data in order to improve this analysis. A GRA at the University of Minnesota (UMN) will be hired to use Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) data to guide the development of a model of farmer behavior that can be integrated with our model of seed industry pricing behavior. We will incorporate our pest management simulation model into a hypothetical landscape that will allow us to better understand the spatial spillovers in farmer behavior that may mitigate or exacerbate the evolution of insect and weed resistance.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
A graduate research assistant (GRA)was hired at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (UWI). This GRA is currently working on the analysis of proprietary seed corn market survey data to better understand pricing behavior ofcorn and soybean seed suppliers. This information is critical for Objective 1 because this pricing behavior plays a key role in determining what types of plant-incorporated protectants (PIP) and herbicide tolerant (HT) seed varieties farmers choose to help with pest management. Matlab moduleswere developed to simulate how PIP and HT crop management decisions affect the evolutionof pest resistance. This code is generic enough to be parameterized for both weed and insect pests. This work is critical for assessing how farmer pest management decisions are affecting the sustainability of using genetically engineered PIP and HT seed varieties.
Publications
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