Socio-economic assessment of using herbicide in selected agricultural commodities: comparison of logit and probit regression analysis

This lecture aimed to assess the socio-economic factors that determine the decision of farmers to adopt contact herbicides on selected agricultural commodities. Specifically, it also assessed the effects of using contact herbicides on the productivity and profitability of selected agricultural commodities; identify the factors influencing the farmers' decision in applying herbicides in selected commodities. This lecture used the data gathered through farm survey of 232 farmers in selected provinces in the Philippines. To facilitate the assessment of effects of contact herbicides, users and non-users of contract herbicides were personally interviewed. They included 70 vegetable farmers, 82 corn farmers and 80 sugarcane farmers to make up a total of 232 respondents. Socio-demographic characteristics as well as farm and production-related data were gathered from the respondents. Data on respondents' awareness and perception on several aspects related to contact herbicides were also collected. Simple descriptive statistics as well as costs and returns analysis and partial budgeting technique were employed to determine the profitability of and potential gains from using contract herbicides in controlling the weeds of vegetables such as cabbage, potato, corn and sugarcane. Based on costs and returns analysis, farms using contact herbicides are more profitable compared to non-users of contact herbicides for all commodities considered in the analysis. On the other hand, logit regression analysis identified the factors like age, training and educational attainment influenced the farmers decision to adopt contact herbicides. The lecture likewise attempted to show the potential impact of contact herbicides on farmers' income using partial budgeting technique. The lecture concluded that the use of contact herbicides as weed control can really improve the farmers' profitability. Improvement in profitability is mainly attributable to the savings in the cost of labor for land preparation and weeding during crop maintenance. The main reason why majority of the farmers use contact herbicides was the fact that they are able to save on labor cost and that it has a fast killing action on the weeds such that they can finish their weeding activities well ahead of time enabling them to do other activities in the farm and outside of the farm. The study recommended that farmers shouild use contact herbicides to control the weeds in their respective farms, if it is to improved profitability that is the main goal of a farmer on a program. Lastly, the lecture recommended the use of contact herbicides because it can be used in wide variety of crops which will result to higher productivity and efficiency in the production of agricultural crops for food and feeds to meet the increasing demand of the world population.