AAEA Trust Scholarship Winners

Each year the AAEA Trust awards several scholarships through support of the Special Purpose Funds. The AAEA Trust Committee reviewed many applications for all of the awards. Congratulations to all of our AAEA Trust award recipients!

Anthony Grano Scholarship Award

The purpose of the Anthony Grano Special Purpose Fund is to provide scholarships for academically successful, highly motivated students in agricultural economics or a closely related discipline with an interest in agricultural policy and the policy formation process. The scholarship will support travel to Washington, DC to meet with senior staff from USDA, Congressional offices, and agricultural trade associations and commodity organizations. The 2014 Grano Scholarship Award winner is:

• Amy Hasenoehrl, Montana State University

Sylvia Lane Mentor Fellowship Award

The Sylvia Lane Mentor Fellowship was established by CWAE to sponsor activities that encourage the academic and professional development of individuals (especially women) conducting economic analyses of food, agricultural or natural resource issues. The fellowship provides an opportunity for young female scholars working on food, agricultural, or resource issues to collaborate with an established expert at another university, institution, or firm. The 2014 Sylvia Lane Mentor Fellowship winners are:

• Brooke Krause, University of Minnesota; Mentor: Laura Schechter, University of Wisconsin Madison; Research Proposal: Trust and Information Sharing: Can Informal Information Networks Improve Child Health and Nutrition in Highland Guatemala?
• Kateryna Goychuk Schroeder, Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI); Mentor: Barry Goodwin, North Carolina State University; Research Proposal: Effects of export policy uncertainty on the Argentinean wheat sector

Chester O. McCorkle, Jr. Scholarship

The Chester O. McCorkle, Jr. Special Purpose Fund supports applied research by a graduate student on economic issues relating to agriculture. The scholarship provides funds to be used for tuition and program related expenses such as fees, books, supplies and equipment, provided the items are required of all students in the program. The 2014 McCorkle Scholarship winner is:

• Jonathan McFadden, Iowa State University

Luther G. Tweeten Scholarship

Luther G. Tweeten Special Purpose Fund provides support for graduate student research on socioeconomic problems of Africa, especially addressing issues of food, population, and environment that affect economic development, poverty, and food security. The scholarship is designed to cover the costs associated with fieldwork in Africa such as research materials, programs, and/or travel expenses. The 2014 Tweeten Scholarship winner is:

• Aine Sietz McCarthy, University of Minnesota; Research Proposal: Evaluating the impact of a family planning program designed to improve education about and access to contraceptives in the Meatu District of rural Tanzania

LI-LMI Travel Grant Winners

Winners of the Travel Grant for Economists from Low Income or Lower-Middle Income Countries

The AAEA Trust is pleased to announce the winners of the 2014 LI-LMI Travel Grant. The winners are economists from low income and lower middle income countries and will be awarded full travel grants to attend and present their research at the 2014 AAEA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis July 27-29, 2014.

The 2014 LI-LMI Travel Grants have been awarded to:

• Opeyemi Ayinde, from the University of Ilorin in Ilorin, Nigeria, will be presenting her paper “Analysis of Supply Response and Price Risk on Rice Production in Nigeria”
• Alaba Modupe Dare, from the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria, will be presenting her paper “Rural Households' Access, Willingness to Pay (WTP) and Factors Influencing WTP for Safe Water and Sanitation in Southwest Nigeria”
• Taiwo Ejiola Mafimisebi, from Federal University of Technology in Akure, Nigeria, will be presenting his paper “Responsiveness of Spatial Price Volatility to Increased Government Participation in Maize Grain and Maize Meal Marketing in Zambia”
• Assa Maganga, from Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Consortium (ANAMARC) in Lilongwe, Malawi, will be presenting his paper “A Food Demand System Estimation for Rural Malawi: Estimates Using Third Integrated Household Survey Data”
• Sendhil Ramadas, from the Directorate of Wheat Research in Haryana, India, will be presenting his paper “Performance and Relevance of Wheat Futures Market in India - An Exploratory Analysis”
• Rajib Sutradhar, from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, will be presenting her paper “Procurement of Fresh Produce by Modern Marketing Channels and their Impact on Farming Household-Evidence from India”

Call for Hosts

To encourage networking, communication, and collaboration among a more diverse pool of professionals, AAEA would like to pair each of the grant recipients with a host who will be attending the 2014 Annual Meeting. If you are interested in participating or would like to nominate someone, please contact Brian Mondragon Jones (bmjones@aaea.org) at the AAEA Business Office.

Renew Your AAEA Membership Dues for 2014

You can renew your AAEA membership for 2014 online. Simply log in to the My Account section to renew. Completing your renewal online saves you time by filling out most of the information for you automatically.

Alternatively, if you prefer to renew using the paper form, be sure to keep an eye on your mailbox as paper forms will be sent in out in early March.

The benefits of your AAEA membership only last through the spring of 2014, so be sure to renew soon to ensure that you keep receiving services from AAEA throughout the upcoming year.

Call for Abstracts: Crop Insurance Symposium and 2014 Farm Bill Symposium

Crop Insurance and the 2014 Farm Bill: Implementing Change in U.S. Agricultural Policy
October 8-9, 2014
Louisville, KY

The current political climate in Washington has resulted in a paradigm shift toward alternative risk management strategies, primarily crop insurance offerings to producers, to help mitigate risks of agriculture. In 2013, AAEA supported the first Crop Insurance Symposium in a time when there was a great deal of uncertainty regarding the nature and timing of the next Farm Bill.

This year’s offering, Crop Insurance Symposium II, is structured to examine and assess the consequences and implications of the 2014 Farm Bill from the perspective of agency implementation, industry adoption and producer management of federal crop insurance under the new policy paradigm where crop insurance is a primary risk management tool.

AAEA seeks submissions for Selected Presentations for the 2014 AAEA-sponsored Symposium “Crop Insurance and the 2014 Farm Bill: Implementing Change in U.S. Agricultural Policy”. Visit the symposium website for more information to submit.

Call for Applications: Student and Early Career Professional Travel Grant

The AAEA Trust seeks applications for Early Career Professional and Graduate Student Travel Grants. These grants defray housing and transportation costs associated with attending the 2014 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis July 27-29, 2014. Up to $400 will be awarded to each applicant, based on professional merit, financial need, and expected active participation in the Annual Meeting.

A qualifying applicant must be a graduate student or comparatively new junior professional (within three years of award of your last degree) engaged at an accredited U.S. college, university, or other institution in such applied economics fields as agribusiness, agricultural, consumer, food, development, environmental, health, marketing, regional, rural, or resource economics. Reflecting the Trust’s goal of broadening participation in the Annual Meeting, preference may be given to individuals working under institutional circumstances not normally conducive to AAEA meeting attendance.

Applications must be submitted through the online application form. You will be asked to submit the following:

1. Your name, postal address, e-mail address, and phone number;
2. Your current status, including: early career professional or graduate student; department and institution at which enrolled or employed; degree program underway or recently completed; years at institution; brief summary of research area; and professional rank or anticipated graduation date;
3. Description of your interest and/or planned participation in the Annual Meeting;
4. Proposed travel budget, including other funding sources available, such as from the your institution; and
5. A nomination from a department,  division head, or supervisor which includes written acknowledgement of the nomination and certification of your financial need, including certification that funding is unavailable from other sources.

Applications should be submitted by the individual seeking support; however, only one application from each department or division will be considered. In the event that more than one application is submitted from a specific department or division, it will be up to the department head to decide which will be considered. Applications will be accepted only from U.S. colleges, universities, and institutions.  The deadline for submission is April 7, 2014.

Call for Applications: AARES /AAEA Heading North Award

2014 HEADING NORTH AWARD

Applications are now invited for the 2014 Heading North award.

The Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (AARES) and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) through the AAEA Trust will jointly offer this travel award to members of AARES or AAEA normally resident in Australia or New Zealand.  Applicants for the award must be a member of AAEA to be eligible to participate in their conference.

The objective of the award is to provide the winner with an opportunity for professional and personal development and international professional and cultural exchange.  The award will have a value of US $3,000.00 to be used to assist the winner to participate in the 2014 AAEA Annual Meeting to be held in Minneapolis from July 27-29, 2014.  Applicants for the award must be a member of either AARES or AAEA.

Selection Process

The 2014 Heading North selection committee will be chaired by the President-Elect of AARES, Ross Cullen.

Applications should include:

• a paper for presentation at the 2014 AAEA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, for which the applicant is the sole or first author and which represents their original and unpublished work
• a one-page biographical statement
• a one-page statement in support of their application, indicating what they would hope to accomplish through the award, why they would be deserving of the award, and confirming that they would be unable to attend the conference without this financial support.

Submission Deadlines and Details

Friday, March 1, 2014 (for travel in July 2014)

Electronic submissions (in PDF form) for this award must be emailed to Annie Hurst at office@aares.org.au by the due date.

Call for Applications: AEPP Editor

Editorship of the Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy

The AAEA Executive Board invites ap­plications for one editor for Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy (AEPP) to serve from 2015 through 2017.  This call for applications is for an editor to manage Submitted Articles which contain original research results addressing real-world problems with sound research approaches and/or have strong policy relevance within the subject matter of the journal.   The degree to which candidate’s expertise complements that of the continuing editors, will be considered in the selection process. The AAEA is particularly interested in candidates who will bring ideas and innovations for helping AEPP to further its mission.

Submitted articles will meet the normal standards for scholarly publication, but should also be accessible to the broader audience of agricultural and applied economists working outside academia. Submitted articles should emphasize one or more of the following: a) practical implications for public policy; b) clarification of research implications so as to maximize accessibility and cross-fertilization across specific areas of research; c) empirical comparison of competing theories, explanations, and approaches that can refine future research; and d) development of fruitful directions for future research.  Additional information about the AEPP, its policies and mission is available at www.aaea.org/publications/aepp .

The editor will work with an editorial team comprised of another Submitted Articles Editor, and a Managing Editor to manage the manuscript review process. The Submitted Articles Editors are responsible for day-to-day issues relating to submitted articles, assisting with development of the Special Issues, and revising editorial policy. The AEPP editorial process employs electronic submission of manu­scripts and interchange between editors and reviewers. An electronic system that tracks manuscripts through submission, review, and editorial decision is used by the editors for managing work flow. Au­thors can also query this system for e-mail reports on the status in the editorial process of a submitted manuscript. The editors also oversee the work of Oxford University Press in preparing copy for printing and reviewing proofs.

The new editor should be prepared to begin on January 1, 2015. There may be some training and coordination work starting around November 1. Applications should include a statement of editorial philosophy and ideas for furthering the journal's goals, an indication of the candidate’s principal areas of expertise to support the AEPP’s mission, a curriculum vitae, and a statement of administrative and financial support to be provided by the host institution. AAEA will provide financial assistance to defray some portion of the editor’s time and most expenses. Applica­tions should be sent electronically via PDF to Brian Mondragón Jones, Executive Director, at bmjones@aaea.org by March 1, 2014. Decisions will be made by early April. Third-party nominations of potentially interested candidates who can then be solicited for their materials are also welcome.

C-FARE Update

2014 Agricultural Outlook Forum

At the 2014 Agricultural Outlook Forum, stop by the C-FARE Booth to Pick-up Your Copy of From Farm Income to Food Consumption: Valuing USDA Data Products.

Jon Brandt Public Policy Forum

Join us for the 1^st Annual Jon Brandt Public Policy Forum: Increasing the United States’ Competitive Edge with Data-Rich Agricultural Analytics. This event will be held on April 29, 2014 from 1:30–4:00 p.m. ET in Washington, DC.

AAEA and C-FARE will co-host the forum which will include a keynote speaker, followed by an interactive panel discussion on the value of federal information and data in local, national, and regional agricultural markets. The audience will include congressional staff, agency leadership, press, data stakeholders, and other decision makers. Please contact info@cfare.org if you are interested in attending.  

Workshop on Agricultural Commodity Futures and Options

In January, C-FARE provided congressional staff with a hands-on workshop featuring two experts in the agricultural futures markets. Dr. Wade Brorsen, Regents Professor and Susan Jacques Chair, in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Oklahoma State University, Dr. Andrew McKenzie, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at the University of Arkansas, provided interactive presentations for policymakers, covering the fundamentals of agricultural futures markets.

Those attending the workshop had the chance to experience the decisions and choices associated with market participation. Worksheets are available upon request. For more information, please see: http://www.cfare.org/workshop-on-agricultural-commodity-futures.

Dr. Lint Barrage of the University of Maryland Joins 30+ Scientists to Discuss Climate Science

In January, Dr. Lint Barrage participated in Climate Science Day on Capitol Hill 2014. The ‘Day’ included a training session on communicating science with Congress, followed by a day of visits to Capitol Hill to meet with legislators. Lint and other scientists worked in multi-disciplinary teams led by representatives from organizing institutions like C-FARE. During the visits Lint met with congressional staff from individual offices as well as with committee staff from U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Forecasting a Healthy Future: A Webinar Highlighting the Value of Fruit and Vegetable Market Data

Fruit and vegetable markets are driven by consumer demands, weather, prices and trade policies. Federal data products from the National Agricultural Statistics Service and other related organizations provide baseline information about essential market variables. Market outlooks compiled by both federal and private entities on fresh and processed fruit, vegetable, tuber and pulse crops, as well as specialty crops integrate federal data products with information about the policy and market environments. These outlooks provide a valuable resource for growers, purchasers and retailers for greater optimization of short and long-term decision making in the fruit and vegetable sector. See the video presentations given by our three expert speakers, Gary Lucier, Matthew Salois and George Hoffman here. For more information: http://www.cfare.org/forecasting-a-healthy-future

Unraveling Uncertainty in Agricultural Markets with Data (November 2013)

http://www.cfare.org/events/c-fare-events/2013/webinar-unraveling-uncertainty-in-agricultural-markets-with-data

Seminar to Elucidate the Value of USDA Data

The need to economize in the face of tightening budgets has sparked efforts to determine the value of U.S. Department of Agricultural (USDA) data products. As a result, USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist (OCE), the Economic Research Service (ERS), and the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) asked the C-FARE to conduct a “review of the value to the public of surveying and reporting commodity statistics.” The report surveys the social science literature on the value of public data, explores the research on the value of USDA data, and describes a framework for prioritizing data collection and reporting. http://www.cfare.org/events/c-fare-events/2013/seminar-to-elucidate-the-value-of-usda-data

Next issue: Meet the new C-FARE Board Members and C-FARE’s 2013 Annual Report.

The Council on Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics (C-FARE) is a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the national presence of the agricultural economics profession. C-FARE's governing board includes prominent agricultural economists representing a wide range of public and private sector interests.

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