Agricultural economics originally applied the principles of economics to the production of crops and livestock - a discipline known as agronomics. Agronomics was a branch of economics that specifically dealt with land usage. It focused on maximizing the yield of crops while maintaining a good soil ecosystem. Throughout the 20th century the discipline expanded and the current scope of the discipline is much broader. Agricultural economics today includes a variety of applied areas, having considerable overlap with conventional economics. Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Sheep are commonly bred as livestock. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... Land use is the pattern of construction and activity land is used for. ... Yield may mean: In economics, yield is a measure of the amount of income an investment generates over time (related to return on investment). ... Look up crop in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Soil science deals with soil as a natural resource on the surface of the earth including soil formation, classification and mapping; physical, chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils per se; and these properties in relation to the use and management of soils. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ...

Origins

Economics is often defined as the study of resource allocation under scarcity. Agronomics, or the application of economic methods to optimizing the decisions made by agricultural producers, grew to prominence around the turn of the 20th century. The field of agricultural economics can be traced out to works on land economics. Henry C. Taylor was the greatest contributor with the establishment of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Wisconsin. Another contributor, Schultz was among the first to examine development economics as a problem related directly to agriculture.^[1] Schultz was also instrumental in establishing econometrics as a tool for use in analyzing agricultural economics empirically; he noted in his landmark 1956 article that agricultural supply analysis is rooted in "shifting sand", implying that it was and is simply not being done correctly.^[2] Schultz may refer to In Silesia, the u was often replaced by o (Scholz, Scholtz included here). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Econometrics is concerned with the tasks of developing and applying quantitative or statistical methods to the study and elucidation of economic principles. ...

Areas of Concentration

• Econometrics
• International Development
• Community and rural development
• Food safety and nutrition
• International trade
• Natural resource and environmental economics
• Production economics
• Risk and uncertainty
• Consumer behavior and household economics
• Health economics
• Labor economics
• Forestry economics
• Analysis of markets and competition
• Agribusiness
• Industrial organization
• Marketing of agricultural products
• Policy analysis
• Rural sociology

Agricultural economics tends to be more microeconomic oriented. Many undergraduate Agricultural Economics degrees given by US land-grant universities tend to be more like a traditional business degree rather than a traditional economics degree. At the graduate level, many agricultural economics programs focus on a wide variety of applied microeconomic topics. During the last decades, graduates from Agricultural Economics departments across America find jobs in diversified sectors of the economy; from corporations to government. Their demand is driven by their pragmatism, optimization and decision making skills, and their skills in statistical modelling. ^{[citation needed]} Econometrics is concerned with the tasks of developing and applying quantitative or statistical methods to the study and elucidation of economic principles. ... Economic development is the development of economic wealth of countries or regions for the well-being of their inhabitants. ... Food safety is a scientific discipline describing the handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent Foodborne illness. ... The Nutrition Facts table indicates the amounts of nutrients which experts recommend you limit or consume in adequate amounts. ... International trade is the exchange of goods and services across international boundaries or territories. ... Environmental economics is a subfield of economics concerned with environmental issues (other usages of the term are not uncommon). ... Consumer behaviour is the study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy. ... Health economics is a branch of economics concerned with issues related to scarcity in the allocation of health and health care. ... Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning of the market for labour. ... Competition is the act of striving against others for the purpose of achieving gain, such as income, pride, amusement, or dominance. ... In agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term that refers to the various businesses involved in the food production chain, including farming, seed, agrichemicals, farm machinery, wholesaling, processing, distribution, and retail sales. ... Industrial organization is the field of economics that studies the behavior of firms, the structure of markets and of their interactions. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Rural sociology is a field of sociology associated with the study of life in small towns and the country. ... Land-grant universities (also called land-grant colleges or land grant institutions) are institutions of higher education in the United States which have been designated by Congress to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890. ...

See also

• agrarian law
• agrarian reform
• agribusiness
• land economics

Agrarian laws (from the Latin ager, meaning land) were laws among the Romans regulating the division of the public lands, or ager publicus. ... Agrarian reform can refer either, narrowly, to government-initiated or government-backed redistribution of agricultural land (see land reform) or can refer more broadly to an overall redirection of the agrarian system of the country, which often includes land reform measures. ... In agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term that refers to the various businesses involved in the food production chain, including farming, seed, agrichemicals, farm machinery, wholesaling, processing, distribution, and retail sales. ... Land in economics comprises all naturally occurring resources whose supply is inherently fixed (i. ...

References

External links

• Universities
  • University of Florida, Food and Resource Economics Department
  • Colorado State University, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
  • Clemson University, Department of Applied (Agricultural) Economics and Statistics
  • Cornell's Applied Economics and Management
  • Louisiana State University A&M
  • Ohio State University, Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics
  • Oklahoma State University Agricultural Economics Department
  • University of Alberta, Department of Rural Economy
  • University of California, Berkeley, Agricultural and Resource Economics Department
  • University of California, Davis's Agricultural and Resource Economics Department
  • University of Maryland's Agricultural and Resource Economics Department
  • University of Minnesota's Applied Economics Department
  • Virginia Tech, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics
  • Texas A&M University, Department of Agricultural Economics

• Research institutions
  • Center for Agricultural and Food Industrial Organization
  • Cornell Food and Brand Lab [1]
  • International Food Policy Research Institute

• Academic and professional associations
  • American Agricultural Economics Association
  • Canadian Agricultural Economics Society
  • European Association of Agricultural Economists

• Digital library
  • AgEcon Search: Research in Agricultural and Applied Economics