Economic comparison of traditional, guided and biological pest control in Italian potato production
1996
Antinelli, A. (Istituto Nazionale Economia Agraria, Osservatorio per il Lazio e l'Abruzzo, Roma (Italy)) | Coletta, A. (Universita della Tuscia, Viterbo (Italy)) | Pucci, C. (Universita della Tuscia. Dipart. Protezione Piante, Viterbo (Italy))
Biological agriculture in Italy shows rapid increases, as farmed hectares, either using fertilizers, or pesticides. In particular, pest control is widely studied, but there are many difficulties to find out natural antagonists to pests. Potato production has been recently concerned with alternative pest control methods. Beyond the traditional methods, such as timely or guided spraying, the effects of biological pest control have been tested. A field test has been carried out on the use of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. tenebrionis against Lepinotarsa decemlineata Say. Its performances have been compared to those of traditional pesticides, sprayed according to alternative schemes. This paper analyzes the economic impact of alternative pest control techniques at farm level in relation to prices of pesticides and output quantity. Different spraing schemes determine various level of costs, depending, namely, on the price of pesticides or natural products employed and, secondly, on the number of sprayings. As a result of the stationary quantity of product, the analysis is developed following a cost minimisation approach and it will draw different scenarios related to alternative variable values.
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