Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2015
The federal government has supported and continues to support or share in the support, financially and technically, of several regional pest management programs. Implicit in continued federal support is the concept that the benefits of the program to society exceed the governmental portion of the costs. As these programs are evaluated and consideration is given to discontinuing federal support, improved estimates of program benefits, or costs of discontinuing, are needed.
The objective of this study was to identify and quantify the expected effects in terms of agricultural output, insecticide use, and production costs of discontinuing a regional boll weevil suppression program on the Texas High Plains. Results of this study are useful to governmental decision makers, local producers, environmentalists and economists.
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Article No. 11311. This publication was supported in part by the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency, through a grant (NSF GB-34718) to the University of California. The work was in cooperation with ARS-USDA and funded in part under USDA Coop. Agr. No. 12-14-100-11, 194(33). The findings, opinions, and recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the University of California, the National Science Foundation or the Environmental Protection Agency. Data and suggestions by Roy Moritz, J.C. Hatchett, Ed Dean, John Thomas, Ray Frisky, and three unidentified reviewers significantly improved the study and manuscript.