Shermain Hardesty
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Cooperative Extension Specialist, Lecturer and Director, Small Farm Program 3110 Social Sciences & Humanities Office Hours: By Appointment Phone: (530) 752-0467 Fax: (530) 752-5451 |
Research Interest Statement
My work focuses on the use of collaborative structures, including cooperatives, to enhance returns to producers. It ranges from very specific issues, such as the restructuring of a cooperative’s equity capital program, to significantly more abstract efforts such as the development of an economic theory for value chains. Many agricultural producers can no longer compete in highly competitive commodity markets. If they are to successfully implement a differentiation strategy to increase their returns, small- and mid-scale producers need to differentiate their products at the production level and to sustain the differentiation throughout the marketing system. This challenge has fostered my recent research regarding how producers can collaborate in vertical linkages with processors, grocers, food service operations and other downstream entities to improve their viability. The economic issues that I have been addressing include transaction costs, principal-agent relationships, and the impact of government policies and regulations.