Jointness in farmers' decision to apply pesticides in multiple crops and its determinants at the farm level in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

Decision about pesticide application for pest control is an issue of major concern, but research on factors affecting decision-making is limited. This study investigates jointness in farmers' decision to apply pesticides in multiple crops and socio-economic determinants of pesticide use across crops using a survey of 2083 farms from 17 districts in Bangladesh applying a multivariate Tobit model. Overall, 75.4% and 12.7% of the farmers applied pesticides in one and two crops, respectively. The decision to apply pesticides in multiple crops was found to be negatively correlated, providing evidence of jointness. Also, individual socio-economic factors exerted variable influences on pesticide use in different crops. Output price significantly increases pesticide use whereas the influence of fertilizer price and labour wage is varied. Educated farmers use significantly more pesticides in rice and oilseed. Marginal and small farmers use significantly less pesticides in wheat/maize and pulse. Policy implications include price policies to reduce fertilizer prices and engaging agricultural extension agencies and non-governmental organizations to disseminate information on specific crop combinations which will synergistically reduce pesticide use.

KEYWORDS:

• Chemical pest control
• pesticide application
• socio-economic determinants
• multivariate Tobit model

Acknowledgments

The database required for this project was created with the financial support from Seale-Hayne Educational Trust, UK (2011) and National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Program (NFPCSP), FAO-Bangladesh Competitive Research Grant, Phase II (2011). The author gratefully acknowledges critical comments of the anonymous referees and the editor which has improved the manuscript substantially. However, all caveats remain with the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Individual estimation of factor demand functions utilizing separability assumption has been widely used in empirical studies (e.g. Rahman, 2003, 2015).

2. A total of 293 farmers produced jute, but pesticide use in jute was minimal. Only 11.95% of the total farmers applied pesticide in jute, and hence, dropped from the analysis.

3. We did not include animal power price because it tends to be uniform and less variable across farms.

Additional information

Funding

Seale-Hayne Educational Trust, UK (2011) and National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Program (NFPCSP), FAO-Bangladesh Competitive Research Grant, Phase II (2011).