MICROECONOMIC ISSUES ANF POLICIES

Microeconomic Issues anf Policies

Microeconomic Issues anf Policies

This paper provides an analysis of microeconomic issues facing agricultural sector in the United States. Agricultural intensification can affect any of the inputs of an agricultural system—the crops planted, the labor expended, and the productivity exacted from the land. It can be driven by increasing population relative to the land available or by changes in market prices and demand for crops. It can result in dramatic investments in and transformations of the landscape, and it can be accompanied by, but will not necessarily result in, intensive social change.

Corn Production

As shown in the graph, corn production in the United States has shown an incremental trend with production increasing every year since 1999. Currently in 2009, the corn production has touched a new high output level of 13 billion bushels and it is predicted that the production will follow a similar trend in the years to come, therefore, the need here is to regularize the price mechanism in the market (www.nass.usda.gov).

Cotton

As compared to corn, cotton production in the US has shown a declining trend during the past ten years.

During the past decade, the production levels have fluctuated between 13 and 22 million bales per year but currently the production has remained stagnant at 13 million bales a year, with a high point coming in the year 2005 (www.nass.usda.gov).

The U.S. Marketing Year Average Price for 2008 upland cotton is 47.8 cents per pound, down 11.5 cents from last year (www.nass.usda.gov).

The Crop Progress percent values show the cumulative progress for each crop at key stages and are identical to the published values (www.nass.usda.gov). The Crop Condition are stacked and always sum to 100 (www.nass.usda.gov). Current year progress lines are identified by the bold lines, the previous year progress lines are dashed, and ...