Alfons Weersink | Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics

Name: Alfons Weersink
Position: Professor
Specialization: Agri-environmental Policy; Farm Structure; Production Economics;

Office

Room 222

Phone Number

ext. 52766

Profile

Alfons Weersink was raised on a cash crop/dairy farm near St. Mary's, Ontario and he continues to be involved with the farm. He is married to Maureen and they have 4 kids, Erin, Kristen, Marc and Bryan.

Alfons is past president of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society and is a panel member of the Agricultural Management Institute.

Research Interests

Present research projects can be categorized into two main themes:

a) Evaluating the consequences of bio-product development on farmers;

This project started by examining whether local bioproduct efforts by provincial governments would benefit Ontario crop farmers experiencing low output prices. The types of efforts include MSc thesis work on the comparative advantage of vegetable oils (K Eckstrom), the financial feasibility of a facility to extract an enzyme from soybean hulls (F. Chalik), and the form of business organization best suited for farmers to pursue value-added activities (G. Pate). However, the rapid rise in crop prices stemming from global macroeconomic changes has shifted the focus to explaining the reasons for these dramatic changes and their implications for the agricultural sector.

b) Assessing the effectiveness of environmental policies within the agricultural sector.

This has been my main area of research over the last decade. One part involves assessing the profitability of farming systems and the reasons for their use by farmers. Examples of this work include the study Pannell et al on the use of future markets, the work by Rajsic and Weersink on the profitability of alternative fertilization treatments, and the paper by Tiriwi et al estimating production losses from a disease in a dairy herd. A second component assesses the tradeoffs between environmental quality and farm profitability between farming systems. This work involves calibrating a biophysical simulation model to predict residual levels and combining it with a farm optimization model. Examples of this work include the MSc thesis by deLaporte and PhD dissertation by Jatoe. The final part examines the effectiveness of policies to achieve environmental quality goals. Examples include the work by To et al on water allocation policy, deLaporte et al on wetland policy and Young et al on carbon policy.

Teaching Interests

AGR*125 Agrifood Trends and Issues AGEC*303 The Firm and Markets AGEC*640 Readings in Agricultural Economics

Education

Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (Honours), University of Guelph , 1982.
Master of Science in Applied Economics, Montana State University , 1984.
Doctorate Cornell University , January 1989

Select Publications

Cabas, J., A. Leiva and A. Weersink. 2008. “Modeling Exit and Entry of Farmers in a Crop Insurance Program” Agricultural and Resource Economics Reviews. 37(1):92-105.

Herath, Deepananda, and Alfons Weersink. 2008. “The Role of Transaction, Production, and Management Costs in the Vertical Coordination Changes of Post-Colonial Plantation Agriculture” World Development. forthcoming.

Jatoe, John, Emmanuel Yiridoe, Alfons Weersink, and J. Stephen Clark. 2008. “Economic and Environmental Impacts of Introducing Land Use Policies and Rotations on Prince Edward Island Potato Farms.” Land Use Policy. 25:309-319.

Pannell, D., G. Hailu, A. Weersink and A. Coad. 2008. “More Reasons Why Farmers Have So Little Interest in Futures Markets.” Agricultural Economics. 39(1):41-50.

Rajsic, P., and A. Weersink. 2008. “Do Farmers Waste Fertilizer?: A Comparison of Ex Post Optimal Nitrogen Rates and Ex Ante Recommended Rates by Model, Site and Year.” Agricultural Systems. 97(1-2):56-67

Rajsic, P., and A. Weersink. 2008. “Risk and Nitrogen Application Levels.” Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics. forthcoming.

Tiwari, A., J.A. VanLeeuwen, I.R. Dohoo, G.P. Keefe, and A. Weersink. 2008. “Estimate of the Direct Production Losses in Canadian Dairy Herds with Subclinical Mycobacterium Avium Subspecies Paratuberculosis Infection.” The Canadian Veterinary Journal. 49(6):569-76.

Banjaree, Anurag. Johan Swinnen, and Alfons Weersink. 2007. “Skating on Thin Ice: Rule Changes and Performance in the NHL” Canadian Journal of Economics 40(2): 493-514.

Herath, Deepananda, and Alfons Weersink. 2007. “Peasants and Plantations in the Sri Lankan Tea Sector: Causes of the Change in their Relative Viability.” Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. 51(1): 73-89.

Jayasinghe-Mudalige, Udith, Alfons Weersink, Brady Deaton, and Mike Trant. 2007. “Effect of Urbanization on the Adoption of Environmental Management Systems in Canadian Agriculture.” International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology. 6(3):316-325.

Weersink, Alfons and Mark Raymond. 2007. “Environmental Regulations Impact on Agricultural Spills and Citizen Complaints.” Ecological Economics. 60(3): 654-660.

Young, Linda, Alfons Weersink, Murray Fulton, and Brady Deaton, 2007. “Carbon Sequestration in Agriculture: EU and US Perspectives.” EuroChoices. 6(1): 32-37, 04.

Esuola, Adeyemi G. and Alfons Weersink. 2006. “Carbon Banks: An Efficient Means to Address to Exchange Sequestered Carbon.” Journal of Environmental Quality. 35(4):1525-1532.

Meyer-Aurich, A., K. Janovicek, W. Deen, and A. Weersink. 2006. “Impact of Tillage and Rotation on Yield and Economic Performance in Corn-Based Cropping Systems” Agronomy Journal. 98(5):1204-1212.

Meyer-Aurich, A., A. Weersink, K. Janovicek, and W. Deen. 2006. “Cost-Efficient Rotation and Tillage Options to Sequester Carbon and Mitigate GHG Emissions from Agriculture in Eastern Canada.” Agriculture, Ecosystems and the Environment 117 (2-3):119-127 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2006.03.023

Turvey, Calum G., Alfons Weersink and Celia Chang. 2006. “Pricing Weather Insurance with a Random Strike Price: An Application to the Ontario Ice Wine Harvest.” American Jounral ofAgricultural Economics. 88(3):696-709.

Weersink, Alfons and Christine Eveland. 2006. “The Siting of Livestock Facilities and Environmental Regulations” Canadian Journal ofAgricultural Economics. 54(1):159-174.

Weersink, Alfons. 2006. “Agricultural Economics in Canada: Ready to Step Up or Fall Back?” Canadian Journal ofAgricultural Economics. 54(1):1-9. (invited).

Herath, Deepananda, Alfons Weersink and Chantal Line-Carpentier. 2005. “Spatial Dynamics of the Livestock Sector in the United States: Do Environmental Regulations Matter?” Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. 30(1): 45-68.

Weersink, Alfons, R.S. Llewellyn and D.J. Pannell. 2005. “Economics of Pre-emptive Management to Avoid Weed Resistance to Glyphosate in Australia”. Crop Protection. 24: 659-665.

Weersink, Alfons, and Ada Wossink. 2005. “Lessons from Agri-Environmental Policies in Other Countries for Dealing with Salinity in Australia”. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture. 45(11): 1481-1494.

Weersink, Alfons, David Pannell, Murray Fulton and Andreas Meyer-Aurich. 2005. “Agriculture's Likely Role in Meeting Canada's Kyoto Commitments”. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics. 53(4): 425-441.