Environment

THREE ESSAYS ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH BROILER PRODUCTION IN LOUISIANA

A Dissertation

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

in The Department of Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness

by Nirmala Adhikari Devkota B.S., Institute of Agricultural and Animal Science, 1994 M.S., University of Western Sydney, 2000 M.S., Louisiana State University, 2008 May 2009

To the almighty of lord for the Love and Merci…

To my parents for giving me the strength to continue…

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my major professor Dr. Krishna P. Paudel for his valuable guidance and advice throughout my dissertation. My appreciation is also extended to the committee members Dr. R. Carter Hill, Dr. Rex H. Caffey, Dr. Richard R. Kazmierczak Jr., and Dr. Hector O. Zapata. I am indebted to all my committee members for their incredible help and guidelines in the dissertation research, analysis and writing. I would like to thank Dr. Gail Cramer, the department head of the Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness for generously providing me an assistantship to pursue this degree. My sincere thank also goes to Dr. J. Matthew Fanning for providing me a financial assistance when I needed it the most. I have enjoyed the friendship with my friends and fellow graduate students in and outside the department. I thank their help and friendship to make my life at Louisiana State University a peaceful and fruitful journey. My deepest gratitude goes to my husband Mohan Adhikari and my brother-in-law Murali Adhikari for their role in my career development. My husband has shown great strength and support for this achievement. Without his love and devotion, my study could not have been accomplished. Thank you my kids, Ashna, Ashish and Anuja for letting me to be a Ph D student instead of...