From agronomic data to farmer recommendations, an economics training manual

Some of those factors may not be evident to the agronomist. This manual shows agronomists how to develop recommendations suited to the farmer"s desire to increase his average income, avoid risks, and, if possible, avoid investing in additional capital equipment. A good farm recommendation can be defined as a choice the farmer himself would make if he had all of the agronomic information available to the agronomist. Successful farm recommendations must be based on agronomic data that fit the farmer"s agronomic conditions or the farmer will not obtain the predicted results. Because it is impossible to conduct experiments on each farm and then make recommendations tailored to each farm, the agronomist must define a target group of farmers, conduct experiments under conditions representative of their farms, and make recommendations applicable to the entire group. This manual assumes that farmers think in terms of net benefits as they make decisions. Illustrative examples of this decision process are discussed. The two main problems in evaluating agronomic alternatives in terms of their net benefits are (1) estimating the relative weights the farmers place on various kinds of goods, and (2) estimating the effect of uncertainty on farmers" decisions about net benefits. The process of deriving recommendations is discussed in detail.