TY  - JOUR
T1  - Pest Management, Productivity and Environment: A Comparative Study of IPM and Conventional Farmers of Northern Districts of Bangladesh
AU - , ASM Rejaul Hassan Karim Bakshi 
JO  - Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences
VL  - 3
IS  - 8
SP  - 1007
EP  - 1014
PY  - 2005
DA  - 2001/08/19
SN  - 1683-8831
DO  - pjssci.2005.1007.1014
UR  - https://makhillpublications.co/view-article.php?doi=pjssci.2005.1007.1014
KW  - Integrated pest management
KW  -conventional farming
KW  -pesticides
KW  -profitability
KW  -productivity
KW  -sustainability
KW  -health and environment
AB  - Experts recognized that there are huge global harvest losses due to pests and effective pest control is thereby of much important to ensure the attainable production. Concerns about the sustainability of conventional agriculture have prompted widespread introduction of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), an ecologically-based approach to control of harmful insects and weeds. IPM is intended to reduce ecological and health damage from chemical pesticides by using natural parasites and predators to control pest populations. Since chemical pesticides are expensive for poor farmers, IPM offers the prospect of lower production costs and higher profitability. However, adoption of IPM may reduce profitability if it also lowers overall productivity or induces more intensive use of other production factors. Using survey data, this paper attempts such an accounting for rice farmers in Bangladesh. We compare outcomes for farming with IPM and conventional techniques, using input-use accounting and conventional production function estimation. All of present results suggest that the productivity of IPM rice farming is not significantly different from the productivity of conventional farming. But as IPM reduces pesticide costs with no countervailing loss in production, it appears to be more profitable than conventional rice farming. Present results also suggest substantial health and ecological benefits. Successful IPM adoption is needed thereby requiring institutional support for collective action.
ER  -