Farm-level impacts of eggplant integrated pest management: a stochastic frontier production function approach

ABSTRACT

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has been widely adopted in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) production, but rigorous impact studies of IPM is limited in tropical, developing, countries. The study employed the stochastic frontier production function and propensity score matching (PSM) to measure farm-level impacts of IPM technology adoption. A total of 283 farmers were interviewed in 2015. It was determined that adoption of IPM did not affect yield and technical efficiency (TE) level of eggplant growers. Mean technical efficiency was similar for adopters (0.66) and non-adopters (0.65). Adoption of IPM reduces the frequency of pesticide application (35.13%) and pesticide cost (Tk. 11,100), Tk. is Bangladeshi currency, 1 USD = Tk. 80, and IPM adopters maximize profit by reducing cost. Due to a higher profitability, IPM technology for eggplant production can improve income to the growers.

KEYWORDS:

• Solanum melongena
• Bangladesh
• impact evaluation
• IPM adoption
• propensity score matching
• sample selection
• stochastic frontier production
• technical efficiency

Acknowledgments

The authors express gratitude to IPM-IL for financial support to complete the study through the USAID Cooperative Agreement to Virginia Tech No. AID–OAA–L–15–00001 Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management. The authors are grateful to the farmers who supplied the data and enumerators for their co-operation.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the United States Agency for International Development [AID–OAA–L–15–00001].