Download or read book The California Almond Pollination Market written by Brittney Kay Goodrich and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economists have been interested in markets for pollination services since Meade (1952) described the reciprocal benefits of pollination. However, the California almond pollination market does not fit the typical reciprocal benefits perspective because beekeepers and almond growers have diverging preferences. It is not profitable for beekeepers to extract and market almond honey, because it is not palatable to humans. Furthermore, California almonds bloom in mid-February, a time when colonies are naturally at their smallest size in a state of winter dormancy. Honey bee colonies exhibit increasing returns to scale in pollination, so almond growers prefer high colony strength. Beekeepers must invest inputs into colonies to increase colony strength for almond pollination. During and immediately after almond bloom very little is blooming elsewhere. Because California almond pollination now requires over three-fourths of all colonies in the United States, immediately following almond bloom most beekeepers must either feed their colonies food supplements or compete for the small number of other crop pollination contracts in California and the Pacific Northwest. An incentive problem thus exists in almond pollination: delivering colonies with high colony strength is costly to the beekeeper while high colony strength is desired by the almond grower. I develop a principal-agent model in Chapter 2 to show that a profit-maximizing almond grower conditions the per-colony fee on delivered colony strength to incentivize beekeepers to invest effort into increasing colony strength. I then explore the types of contracts used during the 2015 almond pollination season using a grower survey that I conducted at the Almond Board of California's 2015 Almond Conference. Although I find variation in the contract provisions used, nearly 90 percent of the 74 analyzed respondents had contracts which included a minimum colony strength requirement. Chapter 3 is a complete summary of the almond grower survey, which provides the first formal information on provisions used in almond pollination contracts reported publicly. In this chapter, I find that almond pollination agreements are often relational in nature and repeated over many pollination seasons. I conclude that growers likely vary in preferences for almond pollination contract provisions and enforcement based on their trust and relationships with beekeepers, expectations regarding yield benefits, experience in the industry, and monitoring costs due to the amount of acreage they own. In Chapter 4, I explore outcomes of the contract provisions discussed in Chapters 2 and 3. I estimate the effect of delivered colony strength on per-colony almond pollination fees using the California State Beekeeper's Association survey responses from years 2008-2016. Because a beekeeper's colony mortality rate over the winter and her delivered colony strength for almond pollination should be related through exogenous colony health issues, I use a beekeeper's reported winter mortality rate as a proxy for her delivered colony strength. I estimate that a 10 percentage point increase in a beekeeper's winter mortality rate leads to an average decrease of 16 percent in total revenues from almond pollination, due to the beekeeper having fewer colonies to rent and receiving lower per-colony fees for her surviving colonies. Chapter 5 highlights the interdependent relationship of almond production and honey bee colony health caused by the large demand for colonies for almond pollination relative to the U.S. honey bee colony population. I analyze data provided by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which contains information on each out-of-state apiary shipment entering California. I determine that shipments into California are concentrated in major almond-producing counties, often at densities over 35 colonies per square mile. In 2016, roughly 76 percent of colonies shipped into California for almond pollination came from eight states, most of which are in the northwestern U.S. Since 2008, the state with the largest increase in colony shipments into California was Florida, whose shipments increased by 278 percent. Florida has relatively high transportation costs of supplying colonies to California, suggesting that the per-colony cost of the marginal supplier of colonies for almond pollination has increased since 2008. I find that when a state's winter mortality rate is above average, the number of colony shipments into California from that state is often below average. Alternatively, when California beekeepers experience higher than average winter mortality rates, out-of state shipments increase to make up for the smaller in-state supply of colonies. The conclusions of this dissertation provide many contributions to the economic literature on pollination services, as well as to policy regarding the improvement of pollinator health. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 show that colony strength is an important consideration for beekeepers and almond growers alike. Because colony strength varies and fees are conditional on colony strength, averaging almond pollination fees is equivalent to averaging prices of heterogeneous products which can result in incorrect inference regarding supply and demand. Thus, it is important to collect survey data on colony strength requirements as well as pollination fees to get an accurate representation of market conditions. Ignoring the role of colony strength underestimates the economic impacts of colony health issues. First, such issues often lead to low delivered colony strength in addition to high winter mortality rates. Thus, beekeepers' returns per surviving colony are reduced. These losses can be substantial given that almond pollination is a large share of commercial beekeepers' revenues. Second, the findings of Chapter 5 highlight the sizable risks faced by beekeepers and almond growers due to the interdependent relationship between honey bee colony health and almond production. High concentrations of honey bee colonies in California almond-producing counties could lead to the rapid spread of pest and diseases among colonies, while colony health issues in regions that are main suppliers of colonies for almond pollination could significantly decrease the number and strength of colonies available for almond pollination.
Download or read book Almond Pollination written by Warren Porter Tufts and published by . This book was released on 1923 with total page 1062 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Managing Alternative Pollinators written by Eric Mader and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Examines the history of the British fire service from 1800-1980, embracing certain key themes of modern British history: the impact of industrial change on urban development, the effect of disaster on political reform, the growth of the state, and the relationship between masculinity and trade unionism in creating a professional identity"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Pollination Markets and the Coupled Futures of Almonds and Honey Bees written by Hyunok Lee and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Honey bees have garnered much attention in recent years. Concerns about long-term sustainability of pollinator populations have been coupled with concerns about implications for food supplies. We use a novel formulation of a multiple input, multiple output, two season equilibrium simulation model to explore economic linkages across the markets of buyers and sellers of pollination services and honey. We specify and calibrate in a tractable way the empirical relationships between pollinators and the crops they pollinate, especially almonds. Our model highlights the sequential nature of the pollination season and implication for revenue from pollination and honey production. We demonstrate how shifts in almond supply and demand and the much-discussed honey bee hive health problems cause price and quantity adjustments in horizontally and vertically related markets and quantify these effects. We show that the economic fortunes of the almond industry, including demand growth, cost concerns, and the potential for new almond varieties that use fewer bees, crucially affect the returns to beekeeping and the number of hives. These drivers of almond economics also have substantial effects on the cost of pollination for crops that are pollinated later.
Download or read book Almonds Bees and Externalities in the California Agricultural Economy written by John William Siebert and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book California Almond Growers Industry and Marketing Problems written by Walter Eugene Packard and published by . This book was released on 1933 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Status of Pollinators in North America written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-05-13 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pollinators-insects, birds, bats, and other animals that carry pollen from the male to the female parts of flowers for plant reproduction-are an essential part of natural and agricultural ecosystems throughout North America. For example, most fruit, vegetable, and seed crops and some crops that provide fiber, drugs, and fuel depend on animals for pollination. This report provides evidence for the decline of some pollinator species in North America, including America's most important managed pollinator, the honey bee, as well as some butterflies, bats, and hummingbirds. For most managed and wild pollinator species, however, population trends have not been assessed because populations have not been monitored over time. In addition, for wild species with demonstrated declines, it is often difficult to determine the causes or consequences of their decline. This report outlines priorities for research and monitoring that are needed to improve information on the status of pollinators and establishes a framework for conservation and restoration of pollinator species and communities.
Download or read book The Cooperative Marketing of Almonds written by John Robert Cox and published by . This book was released on 1956 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Mathematical Model of the Interactions Between Pollinators and Their Effects on Pollination of Almonds written by Kamuela E. Yong and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: California's almond industry, valued at $2.3 billion per year, depends on the pollinator services of honey bees, although pollination by other insects, mainly solitary wild bees, is being investigated as an alternative because of recent declines in the number of honey bee colonies. Our objective is to model the movements of honey bees and determine the conditions under which they will forage in less favorable areas of a tree and its surroundings when other pollinators are present. We hypothesize that foraging in less favorable areas leads to increased movement between trees and increased cross pollination between varieties which is required for successful nut production. We use the Shigesada-Kawasaki-Teramoto model (1979) which describes the density of two species in a two-dimensional environment of variable favorableness with respect to intrinsic diffusions and intra- and interspecific interactions of species.
Download or read book Almond Pollination written by Tufts Warren P. (Warren Porter) and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive guide to almond pollination covers everything from the importance of honey bees to the ideal conditions for successful pollination. Warren P. Tufts draws on years of experience to provide growers with the knowledge they need to maximize their yields and ensure the health of their almond crops year after year. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book California Almond Growers Industry and Marketing Problems written by California. Division of Markets and published by . This book was released on 1932 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Almond Pollination written by H. R. Schlapp and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Mathematical Model of the Interactions Between Pollinators and Their Effects on Pollination of Almonds written by Kamuela E. Yong and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: California's almond industry, valued at $2.3 billion per year, depends on the pollinator services of honey bees, although pollination by other insects, mainly solitary wild bees, is being investigated as an alternative because of recent declines in the number of honey bee colonies. Our objective is to model the movements of honey bees and determine the conditions under which they will forage in less favorable areas of a tree and its surroundings when other pollinators are present. We hypothesize that foraging in less favorable areas leads to increased movement between trees and increased cross pollination between varieties which is required for successful nut production. We use the Shigesada-Kawasaki-Teramoto model (1979) which describes the density of two species in a two-dimensional environment of variable favorableness with respect to intrinsic diffusions and intra- and interspecific interactions of species.
Download or read book Dynamic Analysis of the World Almond Market and the United States Almond Marketing Order written by Peter George Bushnell and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Almond Pollination by Warren P Tufts written by Warren Porter Tufts and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Almond Pollination by Warren P Tufts and Guy L Philp written by Warren Porter Tufts and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Market Study for the California Almond Growers Exchange Regarding Almond Butter Price and Consumer Awareness written by Linda Ann Della and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: