CARI: Center for Applied Rural Innovation

 

Title

Agriculture in Nebraska: Perceptions on Policy Alternatives

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

September 2000

Comments

Published by the Center for Applied Rural Innovation, University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Copyright © 2000 by J. Allen, R. Vogt, and S. Cordes.

Agriculture in Nebraska has been changing dramatically during the past few decades. In the 1999 Nebraska Rural Poll, rural Nebraskans were asked what they would prefer to see for Nebraska’s agriculture in the next 20 years. The majority of the respondents indicated they would prefer to see a family farm ownership structure in contrast to a non-family corporate ownership structure. Yet, less than one-third expect to see that occur in the future. Given that, what types of agricultural policy options or development strategies do rural Nebraskans believe would be effective in reaching the objective of a strong traditional family farm structure for Nebraska? Which policy options or development strategies are they willing to pay additional taxes or fees for? Do their perceptions differ by the region in which they live or by their occupation?

This report details results of 4,536 responses to the 2000 Nebraska Rural Poll, the fifth annual effort to take the pulse of rural Nebraskans. Respondents were asked a series of questions about the future of agriculture. Respondents were asked to rate how effective various agricultural policy options or development strategies would be to keep a strong family farm structure in the state as well as which of these they would be willing to pay additional taxes for. For all questions, comparisons are made by the respondent’s occupation and region. Based on these analyses, some key findings emerged:

• Only 12 of the 25 agricultural policy options or development strategies listed were viewed as being effective by more than one-half of the respondents. This interesting finding is due to the very large number of respondents who often chose “don’t know.” In other words, the jury is still out for many rural Nebraskans on the effectiveness of many possible strategies. Even those strategies or policy options that were viewed as most effective had at least one-quarter of the respondents who chose “don’t know.” In addition, at least one-half of the respondents chose “don’t know” when asked about the effectiveness of nine of the listed strategies.

• Approximately two-thirds of rural Nebraskans perceive the following policy options or development strategies as being effective in keeping a strong traditional family farm structure in Nebraska: promoting Nebraska agricultural products and commodities in domestic markets; promoting Nebraska agricultural products and commodities in international markets; reducing inheritance and estate taxes; and funding for low interest rate loans for beginning farmers. The strategies with the highest proportion of rural Nebraskans rating them as ineffective in reaching this objective include: providing financial assistance for value-added agricultural projects in Nebraska owned by outside investors (43%); capital-intensive livestock production (28%); and providing financial assistance for large-scale, value-added agricultural projects in Nebraska (26%).

• The top ranked strategies by farmers and ranchers include: reducing inheritance and estate taxes; reducing property taxes on agricultural assets; promoting Nebraska agricultural products and commodities in domestic markets; funding for low interest rate loans for beginning farmers; and local processing of grains and livestock.

• Farmers and ranchers were more likely than the other occupation groups to believe most of the policy options or strategies would be effective in keeping a strong traditional family farm structure for Nebraska. However, they were less likely than the other occupation groups to believe promoting agricultural tourism and strengthening environmental regulations were effective strategies.

• No major variations in the ranking of these strategies occurred by region. The relative rankings of these strategies were fairly similar across the five regions of the state.

• Almost one-half (47%) of rural Nebraskans were not willing to pay for any of the policy options or strategies listed. The strategy receiving the strongest support was funding for low interest rate loans for beginning farmers. Twenty-six percent of rural Nebraskans were willing to pay additional taxes, user fees, or higher prices for this policy option.

• Farmers and ranchers were generally more willing than the other occupation groups to pay for the various policy options or strategies. For example, 29 percent of the farmers and ranchers were willing to pay for reducing property taxes on agricultural assets, compared to only 13 percent of the laborers.