By Blake Jackson
A new economic study has found that Cornell University's Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program generated as much as $143.7 million in documented agricultural benefits over four decades, demonstrating the financial value of publicly funded pest management initiatives.
According to Caitlin Hayes, senior staff writer at Cornell Chronicle, the research was published November 2 in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management.
The findings estimate that the program delivered $2.19 in agricultural benefits for every taxpayer dollar invested since New York state began funding it in 1985.
“This brings together the evidence of how Cornell IPM, through its 40-year history, has helped farmers reduce costs and avoid crop losses due to pests,” said first author Allan Pinto, Research Associate and Agricultural Economist for Cornell IPM.
“At the end of the day, a farm is a business, so farmers care about how much they’ll save or gain by doing one practice instead of another. This also shows the government that the money is being put to good use.”
Pinto examined 19 studies covering different crops and evaluated the financial savings associated with adopting IPM-recommended practices. Those savings were calculated across the number of acres planted statewide during the corresponding years.
Researchers found that the program remained financially sustainable even under conservative assumptions about adoption rates and the share of benefits directly attributable to Cornell IPM.
The estimated $143.7 million represents only documented agricultural savings. Researchers noted that the actual economic impact could be substantially higher because the analysis excluded certain crops, environmental benefits, reduced pesticide resistance, and the value of several online resources.
“The final $143 million looks promising, but at the same time, the program has done much more than I’m able to show,” Pinto said.
Cornell IPM traces its origins to efforts during the 1970s to address excessive pesticide use following concerns about DDT and its environmental and health effects. New York formally incorporated funding for the program into its state budget in 1985.
Since then, Cornell IPM has helped farmers adopt biological controls, improve pesticide management, and make informed pest-control decisions. One example is the Network for Environmental and Weather Applications (NEWA), an online forecasting platform that helps growers identify appropriate pest-management periods.
This technology has helped some growers reduce routine pesticide applications from approximately 10 to just two.
“The origins of IPM are closely tied to the lessons learned from DDT,” said co-author Alejandro Calixto, Director of Cornell IPM. “There was significant use of an insecticide without knowing the risks of exposure, and that impact on human health and the environment has a price. We want to avoid going back to the ’60s and invest in developing tools for preventing and reducing risk.”
Looking ahead, Cornell researchers plan to improve economic impact measurements and develop a tool that other state IPM programs can use to evaluate their own returns.
“A big initiative for us is to use this as a framework for other states to follow,” Calixto said. “We really want to show that the money taxpayers are investing in us – they are getting a return.”
Photo Credit: gettyimages-fotokostic
Categories: New York, Education, General