Reducing the Number of Pesticide- Related Illnesses: The Impact on Household Incomes in Indonesia

Abstract

The increasing number of human health problems caused by the use of pesticides serves as a warning to countries to develop preventive programs Developing countries, however, are concerned about the effect of such programs on household incomes. With Indonesia as a case study, this paper presents a procedure to broaden a Social Accounting Matrix to include the impact of agricultural pesticide use on human health This approach utilises the Constrained Fixed Price Multiplier method to analyse the effect, on the household incomes of different socio-economic classes, of government programs that are designed to reduce human pesticide-related illnesses The results show that reducing such illnesses through the Safe Use of Pesticides program or the Integrated Pest Management program induces a more equal income distribution.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Budy P. Resosudarmo

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Indonesian government Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPFT) and the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture, and Development (CIIFAD) They wish to thank the referees for their valuable critiques and comments. The first author also wishes to thank Bryce Allison Isham for her constructive suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.