FROM: 'The value of pest information in a dynamic setting: The case of weed
control'. Scott M. Swinton and Robert P. King. Amer. J. Agr. Econ.
76:36-46. Feb. 1994.
"The key finding of this study is that information-based weed management
can significantly improve expected earnings over those from following a
fixed decision rule. While a careful cost analysis is needed, the results
suggest that information-based post-emergent weed control in corn and soybean
can be quite profitable. By contrast, weed management based upon weed seed
information does not appear to be cost effective at present. In many- but
not all- cases, information-based weed management also reduces herbicide
load in the environment. However, this result may be an artifact of the
benchmark weed control practice rather than an implication of information-
based management.
For farm managers, the significant value of pest population information
is important for two reasons. First, it offers an opportunity to improve
net returns by using more information as an imput. Second, it illustrates
how imperfect management information may lead to privately suboptimal
decisions. This suggests that economic externalities and public goods are
not the only possible causes of environmental contamination by agriculture:
Since more information may induce a private utility maximizing manager to
cut use of agricultural chemicals, information deficiency too can cause
environmental contamination. The imperfect information diagnosis suggests
untested policy alternatives such as pest information subsidies as a means
to achieve the twin social objectives of reduced chemical use and increased
producer income."
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Philip J. Boeve
Dept. of Entomology
North Dakota State University
Fargo, ND