Estimating Bird Damage to Rice in Africa: Evidence from the Senegal River Valley

de Mey, Yann; Demont, Matty; Diagne, Mandiaye

Estimating Bird Damage to Rice in Africa: Evidence from the Senegal River Valley

2012

de Mey, Yann | Demont, Matty | Diagne, Mandiaye

Granivorous birds, mainly the Redâbilled Quelea, have subsisted on cereal crops in Africa for centuries and have caused substantial damage. There is, however, limited recent evidence on their impact. We propose an indirect method to estimate birdâinflicted crop losses by fitting a production function with a damage abatement component and pest intensity slope dummies on a panel database of rice farmers in the Senegal River Valley. This allows us to estimate both bird damage and marginal productivity of bird control at different levels of bird pressure. Annual bird damage is found to average around 13.2% of the potential rice production during the wet seasons of 2003–2007, which translates into an average annual economic loss of 4.7 billion FCFA (€7.1 million). Our results are consistent with farmers’ perceived birdâinflicted crop losses, averaging 15.2%. More alarmingly, we observe declining marginal productivities of bird control under increasing bird pressure. Farmers indicate that at high bird pressure, the efficacy of traditional bird scaring methods is inadequate, which suggests that predictive (monitoring), preventive (population control) and protective (insurance) measures against massive invasions are more urgent than improving the average efficacy of curative measures (pest control). These findings are especially relevant to farmers and policyâmakers who are currently struggling to implement an ambitious food selfâsufficiency programme in Senegal.

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