IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/uerssr/277800.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Natural Resource Capital Formation in American Agriculture: Irrigation, Drainage, and Conservation, 1855-1980

Author

Listed:
  • Pavelis, George A.

Abstract

In 1980 irrigation, drainage, and conservation assets serving U.S. agriculture amounted to $44.3 billion (1977 dollars). These assets, called natural resource capital (NRC), represented about 25 percent of all depreciable nonland business capital in agriculture. Producers' durable equipment other than specialized irrigation equipment accounted for 43 percent of NRC. Nonresidential farm service structures made up the remaining 32 percent of all depreciable business capital. Farm homes, not an element of farm business capital, were worth $38.5 billion, or 13 percent less than the value of NRC on and off farms. In 1980 the onfarm and off farm values of NRC facilities and associated equipment were almost equal, at $22.1 and $22.3 billion, respectively. The onfarm component represented about 14 percent of all depreciable (nonland) business capital on farms.

Suggested Citation

  • Pavelis, George A., 1985. "Natural Resource Capital Formation in American Agriculture: Irrigation, Drainage, and Conservation, 1855-1980," Staff Reports 277800, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uerssr:277800
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.277800
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/277800/files/ers-report-206.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.277800?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pavelis, George A., 1973. "Energy, Natural Resources and Research in Agriculture: Effects on Economic Growth and Productivity for the United States," Miscellaneous Publications 324660, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Greenshields, Elco L., 1948. "Irrigation Agriculture in the West," Miscellaneous Publications 316044, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Robert W. Harrison, 1947. "Land Economic Research in the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 29(3), pages 593-615.
    4. Emery N. Castle, 1965. "The Market Mechanism, Externalities, and Land Economics," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 47(3), pages 542-556.
    5. John F. Timmons, 1954. "Economic Framework for Watershed Development," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 36(5), pages 1170-1183.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nielsen, Elizabeth G. & Miranowski, John A. & Morehart, Mitchell J, 1989. "Investments in Soil Conservation and Land Improvements: Factors Explaining Farmers' Decisions," Agricultural Economic Reports 308064, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Gordon C. Rausser, 1992. "Predatory versus Productive Government: The Case of U.S. Agricultural Policies," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 133-157, Summer.
    3. United States Department of Agriculture, 1989. "The Second RCA Appraisal: Soil, Water, and Related Resources on Nonfederal Land in the United States: Analysis of Condition and Trends," USDA Miscellaneous 329987, United States Department of Agriculture.
    4. Heimlich, Ralph E. & Langner, Linda L., 1986. "Swampbusting: Wetland Conversion and Farm Programs," Agricultural Economic Reports 308005, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Norton, George W., 1976. "Constraints To Increasing Livestock Production In Less Developed Countries: A Literature Review," Staff Papers 14043, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    2. Spash, Clive L., 2019. "Making Pollution into a Market Failure Rather Than a Cost-Shifting Success: The Suppression of Revolutionary Change in Economics," SRE-Discussion Papers 2019/06, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    3. Yanay Farja, 2017. "Price and distributional effects of privately provided open space in urban areas," Landscape Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(5), pages 543-557, July.
    4. Beattie, Bruce R. & Thompson, C. Stassen & Boehlje, Michael, 1974. "Product Complementarity In Production: The By-Product Case," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 6(2), pages 1-5, December.
    5. Charles Wright, 1977. "A note on the decision rules of public regulatory agencies," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 151-155, September.
    6. National Resource Economics Division, Economics, Statistics, and Cooperatives Service, 1979. "Natural Resource Capital in U.S. Agriculture: Irrigation, Drainage and Conservation Investments Since 1900," Economics Statistics and Cooperative Services (ESCS) Reports 329202, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    7. Phillips, Willard, 2012. "Regional environmental policy and sustainable tourism development in the Caribbean," Studies and Perspectives – ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for The Caribbean 5051, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    8. Spash, Clive L., 2021. "The History of Pollution ‘Externalities’ in Economic Thought," SRE-Discussion Papers 2021/01, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    9. Randall, Alan, 1982. "Policy Science In The Land-Grant Complex: A Perspective On Natural Resource Economics," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, July.
    10. Headley, J. Charles, 1972. "Agricultural Productivity, Technology and Environmental Quality," 1972 Annual Meeting, August 20-23, Gainesville, Florida 337291, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    11. Weber, Bruce A., 1997. "Crossing The Next Meridian: The Economics Of Rural-Urban Interdependence, Institutions And Income Distribution In The American West," 1997 Annual Meeting, July 13-16, 1997, Reno\ Sparks, Nevada 35785, Western Agricultural Economics Association.
    12. Anderson, Terry L., 1982. "The New Resource Economics: Old Ideas And New Applications," 1982 Annual Meeting, August 1-4, Logan, Utah 279161, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    13. Jouravlev, Andrei & Lee, Terence R., 1998. "Prices, property and markets in water allocation," Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo 5735, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    14. Bell, Bonita, 1975. "Economics of Agriculture: Reports and Publications Issued or Sponsored by USDA's Economic Research Service, July 1973-June 1974," Miscellaneous Publications 321806, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    15. Grolleau, Gilles & McCann, Laura M.J., 2012. "Designing watershed programs to pay farmers for water quality services: Case studies of Munich and New York City," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 87-94.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:uerssr:277800. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ersgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.