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Abstract
The recent rises in production costs
pose new challenges to farmers.
However, price increases are not
proportionate across input
categories with the most dramatic
increases in energy and energyintensive
inputs such as fertilizer.
Consequently, the relative impact of
rising input costs on different
subsectors of agriculture depends on
the input-intensity of the
production system. Operating costs
were examined for five crops in
California, prunes, winegrapes,
processing tomatoes, alfalfa hay and
dry beans over the period 2001 to
2008. For all commodities, the
increase in operating costs was
greater from 2007 to 2008 than the
average annual increase from 2001
to 2007. The increase in costs was
greatest for alfalfa and processing
tomatoes with relatively high levels
of fuel and fertilizer inputs, and
lowest for wine grape production
which is labor intensive