| Decision making in pest management, like all other economic problems, involves allocating scarce resources to meet human needs. One hundred Illinois corn and soybeans farmers were surveyed to examine their pest management decision making in the 1984 growing season. Farmer's decisions to adopt pesticides; the extent of pesticide use; and technical and price efficiency in the use of pesticide, and other inputs were examined.;Various econometric models were separately employed to examine the relative influence of farm specific and farmer specific or human capital variables on the use of herbicide in corn and soybeans, and insecticide in continuous corn. It was found that different decision rules guide the use of insecticide and herbicide. The use of herbicide is affected by farm specific variables only, whereas, the use of insecticide is affected by both the farm specific and farmer specific variables.;A statistical model was developed to explain the relative over-use of insecticide among farmers. Empirically, this model was estimated using Tobin's procedure. Results show that the variables affecting the use of insecticide--price of insecticide, farmers' background and innovative attitudes--were also affecting the over-use of insecticides in the same crop. However, two variables, age and farm size, which did not affect insecticide use per se, negatively affected over-use of insecticide.;Based upon the theory of rational choice behavior, an adoption model was developed to explain the differential rates of adoption of soil insecticide in first-year corn. This model was estimated using probit model. The factors discouraging the adoption of soil insecticide included education of farmers, higher land productivity ratings, and land cash lease arrangements, whereas those encouraging the adoption of soil insecticide included farmers' perception of worst possible damage, shallower tillage practices, and landownership.;Economic efficiency in the use of production inputs was analyzed using the unit profit function approach. The profit function and the derived demand functions were simultaneously estimated to increase the efficiency of the estimator (Zellner's method). The sample farmers were found to be making optimal use of insecticide in corn, but they failed to do so with other variable inputs--herbicide and cash expenses. |
