This study summarizes an analysis of uniform, topographical and other site-specific soil fertility testing procedures based on observations of various crops at various locations in North Dakota and one location in Minnesota for 2001 through 2004. Results showed little difference in economic returns among the soil fertility testing methods by crop or location.

While agricultural land preservation programs seek to maximize number of acres, to preserve productive farms, to preserve contiguous farms, and to preserve threatened farms, they are often evaluated solely on the number of acres preserved. Using a Farrell efficiency analysis, preserved parcels in four Maryland counties were evaluated for all four goals. Comparisons are made between program Econometric analysis used these efficiency measures as dependent variables. Parcel size and productive farms were the most frequently used criteria to determine efficiency.

Land reform was launched in the Republic of Georgia in 1992, about a year after the
country gained its independence from the Soviet Union. While an impressive land
individualization process has been in effect since then, the pace and the performance of
this process are far from satisfactory. This is due to a combination of institutional and
economic constraints. We use comparable survey data from 1996 and 2003 and show
that the land reform has been progressing mainly through land leasing. This allows

Understanding farmer decisions on land use conversions (LUC) in rural areas has significant importance to understand and predict the patterns of land use changes in China. Many methods have been developed to search for the influencing factors on land use changes at farm household level. However, these methods have difficulty in evaluating the intertwined influences between factors and achieving farmer decision rules on LUC.

This paper examines whether permanent farmland preservation programs are capitalized into farmland prices. We consider the landowner's decision to voluntarily participate and correct for sample selection bias in our estimation of sales prices. Initial results suggest development restrictions resulting from participation in these programs are fully capitalized into farmland prices.

The transition from an open access to a private property rights management regime requires valuation mechanisms that respond to new incentives. The analysis relies on the NPV model, the Arrow Fisher (1972) result and the Black-Scholes option pricing model to describe the necessary elements of resource investment under this transition.