Abstract
Pest problems are a major contributor to income loss in agriculture resulting from
decreased crop yields and increased pesticide costs. Pesticide overuse also has
several negative effects on soil, health, and environment. As a result, several
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) technologies have been developed for use on
vegetables and adopted by farmers. The present study evaluates the effectiveness of
IPM technologies in three ways: a) impacts of IPM on yield, pesticide application,
and pesticide cost, b) estimation of market level impacts using economic surplus
analysis, and c) comparative technical efficiency analysis of IPM adopters and nonadopters. The study was conducted in Jessore, Magura, Barisal and Jhalokati districts
of Bangladesh and data was generated using a randomized control trial. Six
vegetables, brinjal, bitter gourd, tomato, cabbage, cucumber and country bean were
considered in the study. A total of 751 farmers were interviewed in 2015. To measure
the impact of IPM, the study used propensity score matching (PSM), and inverse
probability weighting (IPW) methods. Economic surplus calculations were
completed to estimate the market level returns to investment, and a stochastic
frontier production function with sample selection approach was used to compare
the technical efficiency of IPM adopters and non-adopters of brinjal and bitter gourd
in the study areas. The PSM analysis indicated that IPM has a significant positive
effect on the yield of tomato and a negative effect on number of pesticide application
and pesticide cost for brinjal, bitter gourd and tomato, respectively. For all vegetables
together, IPM adopters received significantly higher returns (Tk. 728.50 to Tk. 953.25)
than non-adopters based on the various matching techniques. Similar findings were
found using the IPW method. Pesticide costs per decimal decreased by Tk. 1990.42,
Tk. 2039.63, Tk. 2017.53 and Tk. 5473.18 based on the Nearest neighbor, Kernel
matching, Radius matching and IPW methods, respectively. The results suggest that
IPM research and extension generated positive net present values (NPVs). The
estimated NPVs were Tk. 29.30, 7.79, 1.10, 7.67, 9.05 and 6.58 million for brinjal,
tomato, bitter gourd, cabbage, cucumber and country bean and their internal rates of
return (IRR) were 42%, 39%, 13%, 29%, 30% and 24%, respectively. The stochastic
frontier production function with sample selection approach indicates that mean
technical efficiency of adopters is higher compared to non-adopters for both brinjal
and bitter gourd which also indicates that due to selectivity bias the conventional
model over estimates technical efficiency. For brinjal, highest 32.65% and 30.41% of
the adopters and non-adopters have technical efficiency scores ranging between 60
and 80% while for bitter gourd highest 46.91% and 27.27% of the adopters and nonadopters have technical efficiency scoreses ranging from 60 to 80% and 0 to 20%,
respectively. The study concludes that IPM adoption in Bangladesh has provided
higher return and cost advantages for the adopters. Investment in IPM research is
beneficial to society. In order to further improve effective Government policy and
extension efforts are suggested.