ISHS Acta Horticulturae 930: XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): International Symposium on Integrating Consumers and Economic Systems
ECONOMICS OF ALTERNATIVE PEST MANAGEMENT IN FIELD VEGETABLES |
| Author: | W. Dirksmeyer |
| Keywords: | Monte Carlo simulation, economics, damage abatement, supervised control |
| DOI: | 10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.930.10 |
| Abstract:
Pesticides are intensively used in open field vegetable production. The use of low pesticide applications and non-chemical pest control technologies is limited. A stochastic bio-economic Monte Carlo simulation model permits the efficiency of alternative pest control methods to be identified in order to assess the likelihood that such technologies will be adopted. Data were collected from a field survey of 134 vegetable producers in Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands cultivating carrot, leek and onion. The analysis focuses on the main insect pests and on weeds. Simulation results for Germany show that controlling carrot flies by timing pesticide applications with warnings from the advisory service is more profitable than routine calendar spraying. Due to low onion fly infestation levels in Germany, neither seed coating nor the sterile male onion fly technique are profitable. Conversely, threshold-based thrip control in leek production is less profitable than routine spraying, due to the greater control effectiveness of the latter. In all three countries, combined chemical-mechanical weed control using reduced herbicide rates is more efficient than the application of full rates or non-chemical weeding. It was found that the risk of low pesticide use technologies is not necessarily higher than that of routine pesticide applications. Since low pesticide use technologies are rarely applied in Germany, although such technologies are profitable, it can be assumed that path dependence in pest control in open field vegetable production exists. | |
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