A MODEL FOR THE OPTIMAL RISK MANAGEMENT OF FARM FIRMS

Abstract

Risk management is an integrated part of business or firm management and deals with the problem of how to avoid the risk of economic losses when the objective is to maximize expected profit. This paper will focus on the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks in agriculture followed by a description of procedures for coordinated and economical application of resources to control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events. Besides identifying the major risk factors and tools for risk management in agricultural production, the paper will look critically into the current methods for risk management Risk management is typically based on numerical analysis and the concept of efficiency. None of the methods developed so far actually solve the basic question of how the individual manager should behave so as to optimise the balance between expected profit/income and risk. In the paper, we derive a criterion for optimal risk management in the sense that we derive the optimal combination of expected income and variance on return to capital on the efficient frontier.