USDA-NIFA Livestream Event

Livestream of Oct. 10 Summit on Data in Agricultural Science NIFA Summit on Big Data The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is convening a summit to identify the frontiers and future of data in agriculture and build on existing U.S. government-wide efforts and investments in Big Data.Save the date for an opportunityto help shape the agenda driving innovation in our agricultural enterprise. Join us via livestream as leaders in agriculture and data science fields converge to synthesize the future of data-driven agriculture. ThisOct.10 event will include an address from NIFA Director Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, a set of visionary talks from leaders in the fields of data science and agriculture, and discussion. This eventwill be streamed live in tandem with the Oct.10-12, National Science Foundation's Midwest Big Data Hub All-Hands Meeting. Event Details Monday, October 10, 2016 - 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Add to Calendar iCalendar Outlook Google Yahoo Be part of the conversation with @USDA_NIFA#NifaAgData Stay tuned for more webinar details and information. More information will be available on the event web page.

NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education, and extension and seeks to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges.

Member in the News: Damian Adams

Homeowners value property value boost brought about by city trees

If a city plants trees near a residential area, most homeowners value the likely subsequent boost to their property values, a new University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences study shows.

And they're willing to pay an average of $7 more per month in taxes for public trees planted in their city.

In the UF/IFAS study, 1,052 surveyed Florida homeowners said they'd like the trees on their land to provide shade and to be healthy, but they'd prefer an increase of $1,600 in their home's value.

Residents were separated into two surveys. One asked them to consider a hypothetical home improvement project to better the trees on their property, while the other asked a similar referendum question regarding a city program that would increase their utility tax to increase urban forests in public areas near their homes. There were 526 responses to each survey.

Given a range of paying between $1 and $10 more per month in city utility taxes, survey respondents said they want trees in their cities, but they're only willing to pay up to $7 more per month, said Jose Soto, a post-doctoral researcher in the UF/IFAS School of Forest Resources and Conservation.

"Our findings indicate that participants find it useful to invest in urban forest infrastructure and are also willing to pay for the benefits of having more trees near their homes," Soto said.

Damian Adams, a UF/IFAS associate professor of forest resources and conservation and an Extension specialist, said the study's findings are consistent with basic economic theory. All things considered, people want more value for their property, and more trees can add money to their home's appraisal.

Read the entire article here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160817102216.htm

Members in the News: University of Kentucky Bowl Team

UK Agricultural Economics Academic Bowl team captures national championship

August 16, 2016
For the first time since 1997, the University of Kentucky Department of Agricultural Economics’ Academic Bowl team brought home the national championship.

The double elimination tournament was held at the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association’s annual meeting in Boston from July 31-Aug. 2 and featured 34 teams from 18 universities.

The members of this year’s championship team are Erica Rogers, Daniella Straathof and April Winebarger. Will Fox, Megan Harper and Rachel Hart comprised the other team from the UK College of Agricultural, Food and Environment.

The team’s undefeated first-place achievement follows last year’s runner-up performance at the event and several years of constant improvement under the guidance of agricultural economics professor Wuyang Hu and coach Jerrod Penn, a doctoral student.

Wuyang Hu, April Winebarger, Daniella Straathof, Erica Rogers,
Jerrod Penn (Photo form UK Agricultural Economics)

Read the entire article: http://www.kyforward.com/uk-agricultural-economics-academic-bowl-team-captures-national-championship/

Member in the News: Thomas Jayne

Africa’s real land grab

Never mind foreign interlopers. African urbanites are scooping up more land

Posted: July 23, 2016
AFTER half an hour poking around Martin Shem’s farm, Paul Kavishe is impressed, even a little jealous. “He has done well,” says Mr Kavishe. “He’s a real farmer!” This is strange praise, not because Mr Shem’s dairy, maize and mango-growing operation on the outskirts of Morogoro is not admirable, but because both men have had university careers. For middle-class Tanzanians, though, a successful farmer trumps a successful academic.

“Every Tanzanian is a farmer,” explains Ali Aboud, another professor who has moved into agriculture. He cultivates about 20 hectares of rice paddy; in the past three years a businessman from Dar es Salaam and another city-dweller have bought big farms near his fields. These men are part of a quiet, hard-to-track but momentous change in Africa, which has profound consequences for the continent’s most important industry.

Surveys show that most farms in sub-Saharan Africa are smaller than two hectares. But that is the wrong way of measuring agriculture, says Thomas Jayne of Michigan State University. Look at land rather than farms, he says, and it is clear that a fairly small number of farmers now own a large portion. The fastest growth is among the middle class. In Ghana, 38% of agrarian land is occupied by farms of between five and 100 hectares; in Zambia, 52% is. In both of those countries, and also in Kenya and Malawi, medium-sized farms collectively take up more land than larger ones, whether those are owned by rich Africans or the foreign investors who are often accused of “grabbing” land.

 

Read the entire article here: http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21702472-never-mind-foreign-interlopers-african-urbanites-are-scooping-up-more?frsc=dg|a

Photos: 2016 AAEA Awards & Fellows Recognition Ceremony

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View the photos and list of this year's winners on the AAEA Website: http://www.aaea.org/about-aaea/awards-and-honors/aaea-annual--awards

Webinar: Farm Income and Financial Forecasts, August 2016 Update

ERS releases farm income statement and balance sheet estimates and forecasts three times a year, including February, August and November. These core statistical indicators provide guidance to policy makers, lenders, commodity organizations, farmers, and others interested in the financial status of the farm economy. ERS's farm income statistics also inform the computation of agriculture's contribution to the gross domestic product of the U.S. economy. During this webinar, we will provide the August forecast for 2016 as well as first estimates for 2015.


https://cc.readytalk.com/r/b71qlchc8g04&eom

Date:	Tue, Aug 30, 2016
Time:	01:00 PM EDT
Duration:	1 hour
Speaker(s):	James Williamson