Conferences
Regional Multi-state Enterprise Budgets for Fruit and Vegetable Crops
Charles Hall
Summary
In order to reduce and perhaps eliminate the duplication of effort that has existed between land-grant institutions in developing enterprise budgets, agricultural economists and horticulturists at five Southern Region universities are collaborating in the development of regional fruit, vegetable, and melon budgets. These budgets will be based on standardized input price and equipment cost parameters, but will be flexible enough to be modified according to the integrated pest management practices occurring in each state. This standardization will facilitate the comparison of production costs across state lines and serve the dual purpose of working synergistically in order to maximize productivity from the limited number of economist FTE’s working with these horticultural commodities. For each fruit and vegetable commodity, one of the five teams of economists and horticulturists will be assigned lead responsibility for developing the initial production/cultural practice parameters, with the other economists contributing the parameters associated with their respective state. Through a modified Delphi technique, a consensus will be reached regarding the cultural practices to be modeled in each regional budget. Budgets are currently being planned for 2004 development for 14 vegetable commodities, with the following crops being planned for 2005: peaches, blueberries, cantaloup, peppers, and eggplant. A detailed budget for drip irrigation is also being planned.
Details
| Conference | 2005 National Extension Risk Management Education Conference |
| Presentation Type | Poster |