An Overview of The Center
An Overview of The Center
Strategic Issues for Agricultural Finance
As the twentieth century reaches its close, change is at the forefront of agriculture. Traditional farms are continuing to evolve to increase production efficiency and to meet changing consumer demands. The boundaries of production agriculture are being reshaped, while the economy is forcing restructuring in the methods of doing business. Industrialization of agriculture is changing the magnitude of financial capital needs. Agricultural and nonagricultural businesses are reaping the benefits of locating at rural addresses, even as major concerns remain about the economic vitality of many rural communities and infrastructure.
Financial capital markets play a major role in commercial agriculture, rural communities, and agribusinesses. Competitiveness in financing rural America continues to increase. Capital providers range from rural to international players and include traditional banks, Farm Credit System institutions, and nontraditional captive finance organizations. As farm and rural businesses have become global players, the sources and providers of financial capital have responded with innovations in domestic and international markets.
The Center for Farm and Rural Business Finance
Strategic issues facing agricultural finance prompt the need for an objective research and information base for decision-making by farm and rural businesses, their lenders, investors, and policy-makers. The Center for Farm and Rural Business Finance is a finance-focused initiative providing essential information for farm and rural businesses and their capital providers. The Center focuses on preparing for and meeting the demands created by the changing structure of agriculture, financial markets, and rural economies.
The Center is an ongoing targeted research, education, and problem-solving enterprise addressing critical issues in farm and rural business finance. Operated as a cooperative undertaking of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Arkansas, the Center is prepared to meet the challenges of understanding the changing relationships among farm and rural business and their capital providers — an area that is essential to the prosperity of rural America.
The Center focuses on the issues affecting the availability and effective use of financial capital for U.S. farm and rural businesses. The objective of the Center is to assist the farm and rural business sectors, the finance industry, and state and federal policy-makers in making more informed decisions affecting the financing of agriculture and rural America. The work of the Center involves three principal areas of inquiry:
The Center is an initiative of the Department Of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at the University of Arkansas. Collaborative efforts include faculty, students, and researchers from land grant universities spanning the United States. The universities of Illinois and Arkansas have exceptional records in the areas of agricultural and rural finance and agricultural law.
Financially, the Center is a partnership funded through the agricultural experiment stations of Illinois and Arkansas; the Illinois Farm Development Authority; federal grants through the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and private industry grants and projects.
With diminishing federal support, the ongoing success of the Center is made possible by private gifts from individuals and corporations. Strategic partners and friends can encourage the research, education, and outreach efforts of the Center:
As part of its continuing outreach mission, the Center holds regular, nationally recognized workshops and conferences. The annual National Symposium for Agricultural Finance Executives highlights the outreach activities of the Center. The National Symposium provides a forum for industry leaders and strategic decision-makers to share ideas about the economic forces that will affect the provision and use of agricultural capital in the future. Symposium sessions have focused on:
The research efforts in agricultural finance of the Universities of Illinois and Arkansas are unsurpassed in quality and timeliness. Faculty and staff of the Center have collaborated to author numerous books and hundreds of academic and popular press articles. Faculty have served as journal editors and reviewers. The prominence of Center faculty and their research in the agricultural finance industry has led to frequent speaking engagements, task force memberships, and testimony at congressional hearings.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Arkansas are land grant institutions serving graduate, undergraduate, and professional students from the 50 states and more than 100 countries. The Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois has consistently ranked in the top departments for graduate and undergraduate education for agricultural economics and has been noted as the top institution at which to study agricultural finance.
Bruce L. Ahrendsen,
Associate Professor of Finance, Arkansas
Delmar K. Banner
Center Vice-Chair
Adjunct Professor of Agricultural Law and
Finance, Illinois
Peter J. Barry
Center Director
Professor of Agricultural Finance, Illinois
Heather Dall Weber
Research Specialist, Illinois
Research Specialist, Illinois
Bruce L. Dixon
Professor of Economics and Agricultural Economics,
Arkansas
Paul N.
Ellinger
Associate Professor of Agricultural Finance, Illinois
Ani L. Katchova
Assistant Professor of Agricultural Finance, Illinois
Bruce J. Sherrick
Associate Professor of Agricultural Finance, Illinois
Administrative Secretarial Support, Illinois
Professor of Future and Options Marketing, Illinois
Associate Professor and Extension Specialist in Farm Management
Support and Endorsements for The Center
Formalized in 1991, the Center has received endorsements from these organizations:
Learn More about The Center for Farm and Rural Business Finance
| For Illinois information, please contact: | For Arkansas information, please contact: |
| Peter J.
Barry, Director Delmar K. Banner, Vice-Chair The Center for Farm and Rural Business Finance University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 326 Mumford Hall 1301 West Gregory Drive Urbana, IL 61801 (217) 333-1827 |
Bruce L. Ahrendsen Bruce L. Dixon The Center for Farm and Rural Business Finance Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology University of Arkansas 217 Agriculture Building Fayetteville, AR 72701 (501) 575-5306 |
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Maintained by: Heather Dall Weber