Service-Learning in Agricultural Economics: Harnessing Local Food to Introduce Students to Applied Research and Extension

Although HIV/AIDS infection is a global problem the epicentre of the disease lies in Africa. In fact about 70 per cent of the global HIV/AIDS infected population can be found in sub-Saharan Africa (UNAIDS 2000). The reported HIV/AIDS sero-prevalence rate for South Africa was estimated at 23.5 per cent in 2000 (Department of Health 2000). This high rate of HIV/AIDS infection poses enormous problems and challenges to the economic development of the country more so because HIV/AIDS affects the most economically productive sector of the population. The high rate of HIV/AIDS infection also calls for an urgent need to assess the socio-economic impact of the pandemic in the country. This paper focuses on the impact of HIV/AIDS on rural households in Limpopo province. The high level of poverty in this province (i.e. 59 per cent) makes this assessment even more pertinent given the fact that poverty stands to increase people’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS while HIV/AIDS-related morbidity and mortality may cause affected households to be forced into poverty. The specific objectives of this paper are as follows: (i) To assess the economic impact of HIV/AIDS on rural households in Limpopo Province (e.g. the impact of HIV/AIDS on households size household income household expenditures household savings household assets and household borrowings). (ii) To identify rural households’ coping strategies for mitigating the adverse economic impact of HIV/AIDS. (iii) To put forward appropriate policy recommendations to mitigate the economic impact of HIV/AIDS on rural households in Limpopo Province. (excerpt)

The Importance of Scientific Publishing: Teaching an Undergraduate How to Swim the Entire Length of the Pool

This article explores how to embed an undergraduate research project within a course and summarizes the student experience in courses including undergraduate research. The authors specifically focus on how to modify and alter materials to fit with different course foci and different course levels. We have been leading an interdisciplinary, multi-year research project for the past four years. During that time, we have scaffolded a research project from year to year. Each piece of the project has been embedded within a course. However, the specific course level and content focus has changed from year to year. By embedding a research project within a class, faculty members have a unique opportunity to give their students a high-impact experience and further their own research simultaneously. We have successfully mentored and supervised students in the following formats: a freshman interdisciplinary honors course, two different undergraduate criminal justice courses made up of 5-10 students that were focused around criminological theory testing, individual directed study projects with graduate students, a 30-40 person upper level criminology research methods course, and a freshman individual directed study research project. Throughout all of these modalities, we have kept a core type of course design and course requirements but modified the components and grading criteria as needed for the type and level of course. We will summarize and discuss student assessment data both on their experience in the course as well as their achievement of student learning outcomes.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">With distance education delivery technology improving almost continuously, many Universities are seeking out distance education opportunities to expand their programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span>We seek to examine the effectiveness of the distance delivery approach across the range of types of courses offered in MBA programs – from the organizational leadership classes to the more quantitative “number crunching” classes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span>Student performance in several types of MBA courses was evaluated as a result of presenting the same material on-campus (synchronously) and via distance education (asynchronously) in three different kinds of graduate business courses; a course in organizational leadership, an analytical course in managerial economics, and a quantitative methods course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span>A number of individual variables (e.g., GMAT scores, undergraduate GPA) were included as explanatory factors regarding student performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span>Using multiple hierarchical regression analysis, the asynchronous distance delivery model was determined to have no adverse impact on student performance across all of these different types of MBA courses, indicating that indeed <span style="layout-grid-mode: line; color: black;">distance education techniques can adequately handle this broad range of graduate business classes.</span></span></span></p>

We identify factors related to instructors’ choice of assessment methods in undergraduate economics courses, using national survey data collected in 1995, 2000, and 2005. Respondents were asked to indicate which of 10 different assessment methods they used in four different types of courses (principles, intermediate theory, econometrics and statistics, and other upper-division field courses), and to provide background information on school, department, and individual factors that might influence the choice of assessment methods, including time spent on research vs teaching, perceived incentives/rewards for those activities in their departments and schools, class size, and the individual instructor's rank, years of teaching experience, gender, and native language. Both probit and OLS specifications show most of these individual variables to be important in determining the choice of assessment methods in at least some types of courses, but only rarely across all types of courses. Two variables reflecting school missions and departmental policies are, however, important determinants of using essay questions and longer written assignments, such as term papers: class size (especially classes with more than 40 students) and semester teaching loads for faculty members.

We examine whether differences exist in the prevailing salary structures for doctorate‐granting economics and agricultural economics departments at public, land‐grant universities in the United States. Within a sample of 440 economists and 375 agricultural economists, we find that economics departments exhibit greater variation in annual salaries, higher estimated negative returns to seniority, and larger estimated returns to career publishing success than do agricultural economics departments. These difference manifest themselves in a hierarchical salary distribution in which members of elite economics departments earn the highest predicted annual salaries, members of elite agricultural economics and middle‐ranked economics departments earn middle predicted annual salaries, and members of middle‐ and lower‐ranked agricultural economics and lower‐ranked economics departments earn the lowest predicted annual salaries. In 16 out of 22 universities studied, we predict that economists would face salary declines if they moved across campus (or in some cases down the hall) to their respective agricultural economics departments.

To apply or not to apply economics?that is the question? Hardly. Applied economics, or at least what is operatively accepted as applied economics by journal reviewers and editors and practiced by economists in the profession, is pervasive in the top economics journals, outright dominant in journals de voted to the various variants of agricultural economics, and ubiquitous in the professional output of industry, government, and non government organization (NGO) economists, Extension faculty, and an ever-increasing ma jority of research/teaching faculty at public and private universities. A number of de partments, formerly known as Agricultural Economics Departments (or some closely re lated derivative), have adopted Applied Eco nomics as part or all of their department's name (e.g., U. of Minnesota, U. of Georgia, Cornell, Clemson, U. of Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, Texas Tech, North Dakota State U, U. of Wyoming, Utah State U, U. of Ver mont, and North Carolina A&T University). Journals abound that embed the term Ap plied Economics in their titles (e.g., Journal of Applied Economics, Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Applied Economics (AEA), Applied Economics (Routledge), Ap plied Economics Letters, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, and Review of Applied Economics). Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Applied Economics abound (as a Google search for such programs will attest), and there are even PhD degrees being granted in Ap plied (as distinct from General) Economics. There are also now explicit rankings of Ap plied Economics departments that are distinct from rankings of General Economics depart ments and which include a number of the for

In 2010, the United Nations established access to safe drinking water as a basic human right; however, many areas around the globe still lack access. The interdisciplinary service-learning course “Water Supply in Developing Countries” was established at Purdue in 2012 to address the complex issue of water insecurity around the world. Over the past five years, the course has produced teams involving students from nursing, engineering, agricultural economics, biology, and food science working together to develop sustainable, community-scale drinking water treatment systems. In partnership with Aqua Clara International, the student team in 2017 established a drinking water treatment system at the Ana Julia Diaz Luna primary school in the rural community of Las Cañas, Dominican Republic. In addition to the focus on a physical water system, they also collaborated with local educators to design a water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) education program. Students guided development of sustainable economic strategies to utilize the system for generation of revenue to reinvest in maintenance and improvements. The observations and lessons learned from the completed stages of this project have been applied to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of subsequent interventions.

A common criticism that neither the right quantity of Agricultural Economics nor the right kind of Agricultural Economics is available to students in agriculture is coincident with the decrease in the enrollment of students in agriculture in Land-Grant Colleges. Agricultural Economics is here used in the generic sense to include basic courses in general economics, and allied subjects necessary for economic training which will meet the needs of the student. Training in Agricultural Economics may not be available although the subjects are offered in the catalogue. It is thought worth while to compare the subjects offered and these students actually take with the subjects which current opinion indicates that the student should take. The catalogues show the courses offered; Departments of Agricultural Economics were asked to supply data to show the economic subjects students of agriculture took in 1925-26 in Land-Grant Colleges; and various agricultural agencies were requested to rate twelve subjects in the order of their importance to determine what the student should take in Agriculural Economics.

Curriculum for 140 agribusiness and agricultural economics programs were identified and compared against a similar study done in 1985 when the National Agribusiness Education Commission began studying agribusiness programs. We have identified five key findings. First, agribusiness management is now tied with policy as the third most commonly taught undergraduate course in agricultural economics departments (after agricultural marketing and agricultural finance). A required course in farm management has decreased from two-thirds of agribusiness degrees in 1985 to only one-third of such degrees in 2003. Second, many agribusiness degrees are three times as likely to require business finance relative to agricultural economics degrees. Third, no strategy courses were identified as being taught in agribusiness management degrees in 1985. In 2003, 17 such courses were being taught. Strategy is a course that integrates many management concepts. With the exception of an advanced farm management course, no such integrative course was identified in agricultural economics courses. Fourth, a course in business marketing was almost twice as likely to be required in an agribusiness degree relative to an agricultural economics degree. Fifth, a required course that explores the international dimensions of finance, management, marketing, policy, trade, or similar topics remains a severe limitation in most agribusiness and agricultural economics degrees. Finally, it is clear that agribusiness management has become an even more important subject in agricultural economics programs since 1985.

The authors analyzed curricula from all 61 Canadian undergraduate business programs and found that business schools that contain economics departments, business schools with higher mathematics and statistics requirements, and business schools that have received Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation are more likely to require additional economics courses beyond the standard introductory level microeconomics and macroeconomics. Among those schools that require one or more additional economics courses, managerial economics is the preferred requirement. The authors also found that many specialized business programs, such as human resources, finance, and international management, include either required or optional economics courses beyond those already required in the school's general business degree program. Based on the findings, the authors make recommendations for business school curriculum development.

This study examines academic, demographic, and anisotropic spatial factors in the classroom affecting student performance in principles of economics courses at a major Land Grand institution in the Midwest. Factors were identified that impact performance on exams, overall performance in the course, and anisotropic spatial relationships in the classroom were explored to determine if students’ peers and seating choice affect their performance. Results indicated that being female, currently enrolled hours for the semester, haven taken algebra, being an agricultural economics major, class status, seating location, GPA, and homework scores all affected student performance as some point in time during the sample period.

This study describes and compares agribusiness master’s programs in North America. These programs include the master of business administration (MBA) and master in (or “of”) agribusiness (MAB) degrees. Accredited MBA programs with an agribusiness emphasis are required to have a clear required core of courses in finance, management, marketing management, and human behavior. Additional required courses in policy, agricultural marketing, production or managerial economics, and quantitative methods are also frequently required. MAB programs have more diversity regarding the four core subjects with a greater percentage of the courses taught within departments of agricultural economics. Evaluation of agribusiness master’s programs in agricultural economics departments is difficult without any formal evaluation criteria.

Land/grant colleges were established to serve the public via a tripartite system of teaching, research, and extension. Agricultural economists have played a key role in this system in meeting agriculture's needs and are expanding this role to better cover the areas of food, natural resources, and the environment. The declining economic importance of agriculture and the growing interest in relegating agriculture to free market forces has resulted in declining formula funding for the land grant system, greater emphasis on competitive funding, demands for greater accountability, and demands for a return to greater focus on public service, problem solving, and stakeholder involvement in the definition of research, teaching, and outreach agenda. Simultaneously, the demand for the traditional “agricultural economics” graduate is declining. This paper reviews the current and long-term issues and trends facing agricultural economics departments, explores the futures of their teaching, research, and outreach programs, and highlights the challenges that will be faced as these departments explore new teaching, research, and service opportunities in the areas of food, natural resources, and the environment. The paper concludes by arguing that for forward thinking agricultural economics departments, these pending changes will represent opportunities for better scholarship, more balance, and more effective service.

Ph.D. students in agricultural economics, like any other discipline, face great uncertainty when pursuing academic employment. This is particularly true for those who want to pursue a position that is predominantly teaching. In this article, we explore the possibility of obtaining such a position within an economics department at a non‐land grant academic institution. A survey was distributed to nearly 300 economics department chairs or heads at smaller colleges and universities. The results show that although gaining classroom experience of any sort is essential, it is most beneficial for the graduate student to have an independent teaching experience. We recommend that agricultural economics departments implement a mentoring program to guide students in developing their teaching skills.