Abstract
As demands on agriculture increase, food producers will need to employ management strategies that not only increase yields but reduce environmental impacts. Modeling is a powerful tool for informing decision-making about current and future practices. We present a model to evaluate the effects of crop diversification on the robustness of simulated farms under labor shocks. We use an example inspired by the Florida production system of high-value, labor-intensive fruits. We find that crop diversification to high-value crops is a robust strategy when labor shocks are mild, and that crop diversification becomes less valuable as more simulated farms practice it. Based on our results, we suggest that crop diversification is a useful management strategy under specific conditions, but that policies designed to encourage crop diversification must consider broad effects as well as farm-level benefits.
Publication types
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Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
MeSH terms
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Conservation of Natural Resources / economics
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Conservation of Natural Resources / methods
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Crop Production / economics
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Crop Production / organization & administration*
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Crop Production / statistics & numerical data
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Crops, Agricultural / economics
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Decision Making
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Decision Support Techniques*
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Employment / economics
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Employment / statistics & numerical data
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Farms / economics
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Farms / organization & administration*
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Farms / statistics & numerical data
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Feasibility Studies
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Florida
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Models, Organizational*
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Workforce / economics
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Workforce / statistics & numerical data
Grants and funding
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (
https://www.nsfgrfp.org), awarded to A.A. Beal Cohen, under Grant No. DGE-1315138 and DGE-1842473. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.