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A wide-ranging examination of the risks agricultural producers face and how risk management policies respond to an uncertain economy.

Agricultural producers face greater risk and uncertainty than those in many other sectors of the economy. Sources of risk include weather shocks, disease, and volatile prices that can upend a season's returns. A wide array of federal policies, including crop and livestock insurance programs, are designed to help producers manage these risks, often at substantial cost to taxpayers. This volume examines how producers respond to and manage various risks across multiple dimensions. Contributors investigate the potential for "subsidy harvesting" in livestock insurance markets, the effects of climate change on insurance participation and crop choice, the relationship between the structure of insurance contracts and diversification incentives, and the role of conservation practices in risk mitigation. The research studies present new evidence on the design and consequences of agricultural risk management policies.

An essential guide to the role of microeconomic incentives, macro policies, and technological change in enhancing agriculture resilience.

Climate change and the recent COVID-19 pandemic have exposed the vulnerability of global agricultural supply and value chains. There is a growing awareness of the importance of interactions within and between these supply chains for understanding the performance of agricultural markets. This book presents a collection of research studies that develop conceptual models and empirical analyses of risk resilience and vulnerability in supply chains. The chapters emphasize the roles played by microeconomic incentives, macroeconomic policies, and technological change in contributing to supply chain performance. The studies range widely, considering for example how agent-based modeling and remote sensing data can be used to assess the impact of shocks, and how recent shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the African Swine fever in China affected agricultural labor markets, the supply chain for meat products, and the food retailing sector. A recurring theme is the transformation of agricultural supply chains and the volatility of food systems in response to microeconomic shocks. The chapters not only present new findings but also point to important directions for future research.