The Changing Structure of Agriculture In Nebraska

Production agriculture in Nebraska is undergoing profound change. Longrun structural trends have emerged during the financially stressed 1980\u27s. Increasingly, fewer farms account for most of the production volume, while thousands of smaller farms exist by combining nonfarm income with modest farm receipts. By the year 2000, Nebraska may have less than 30,000 farms, half the current number. These trends, in combination with the likelihood of continued economic stress for U.S. agriculture, pose considerable policy challenges to a state whose economy remains heavily interrelated with agriculture. Bold institutional measures need to be made to ease the transition and to position the state and its people for entering the 21st century