An index method to evaluate growers’ pesticide use for identifying on-farm innovations and effective alternative pest management strategies: a case study of winegrape in Madera County, California*

Winegrape is an important perennial crop in California, USA. Each year California winegrape farming consumes about 20 million kilograms of pesticides that have been a pollutant source to the fresh water systems of the state. The variation of pesticide use among winegrape growers has been significant. It has been observed that some growers have developed effective ways to reduce pesticide use, yet control pests efficiently to ensure harvest. Identification of the growers with low and high pesticide use is very helpful to extension programs that aim on reducing pesticide environmental risk. In this study, an index approach is proposed to quantitatively measure pesticide use intensity at grower level. An integrated pesticide use index is developed by taking pesticide quantity and toxicity into account. An additive formula and a multiplying formula were used to calculate the pesticide use index, i.e., PUI and PUIM. It was found that both PUI and PUIM were capable of identifying the low and high pesticide users while PUI was slightly more conservative than PUIM. All pesticides used in California winegrape farming were taken into account for calculating the indices. Madera County, one of the largest winegrape producers in California, was taken as an example to test the proposed approach. In year 2000, among the total 208 winegrape growers, 28 with PUI≤10 and 34 with 10<PUI≤20 were identified as low pesticide users who were characterized with both low quantity and low toxicity of pesticide use. Most of the growers had small-sized vineyards, i.e., one field and small planted areas. Furthermore, they had very low pesticide use intensity, used only 1–2 types of pesticides (mainly fungicides), applied few pesticides (1–3 only), and emphasized the use of low toxicity compounds. Meanwhile, 19 growers with PUI>60, identified as high pesticide users, had large-sized vineyards, i.e., more fields and large planted areas. They used all types of pesticides and many compounds, which indicated that their pest controls heavily depended on pesticides rather than on-farm management. Through the case study, the proposed approach proved to be useful for analyzing the growers’ pesticide use intensities and interpreting their pesticide use behaviors, which led to a new start point for further investigation of searching ways to reduce pesticide environmental risk

Supermarket market-channel participation and technology decisions of horticultural producers in Brazil

This paper examined the relationships between growers’ choice of market channel (emphasizing the supermarket market-channel versus others), technology use, and grower characteristics such as human capital and farm size. Three key findings emerged. First, both tomato and lettuce growers selling to the supermarket market-channel had more human capital than those not participating. Second, while farm size was important in whether lettuce growers sell to supermarkets, it was not important for tomato growers. Third, technology use was significantly more capital-intensive among lettuce growers selling to the supermarket channels, however, that was generally not the case for tomato growers. These results are important to agribusiness researchers and policymakers interested in technology design and research and extension to enable producers to adapt to the needs of changing agrifood markets, with new requirements of attributes of products and transactions, which in turn have implications for technology adoption and human capital investment among growers. This is particularly pressing in places like Brazil where the market for horticultural products is changing quickly, conditioned by the rapid rise of supermarkets.<br>Este artigo analisa as relações entre a escolha dos canais de distribuição dos produtores (enfatizando distribuição por meio de supermercados versus outros canais), o uso da tecnologia e as características dos produtores como capital humano e tamanho da propriedade. Foram identificados três resultados principais. O primeiro revela que produtores de tomate e alface que distribuem por meio de supermercados apresentaram maior capital humano que aqueles que não utilizam esse canal. O segundo resultado indica que enquanto o tamanho da propriedade foi importante para produtores de alface decidirem distribuir por meio de supermercados, essa variável não foi importante para produtores de tomate. O terceiro resultado sugere que o uso da tecnologia foi significativamente mais intenso em capital entre os produtores de alface que vendem seus produtos para os supermercados, no entanto, isso não foi observado para produtores de tomate. Esses resultados são importantes para pesquisadores e formuladores de políticas interessados em tecnologia, pesquisa e extensão visando a ações que permitam aos produtores se adaptarem às necessidades atuais do mercado. Essas necessidades envolvem atributos de produtos e das transações, que por sua vez, implicam em investimentos em tecnologia e capital humano. Esses fatores têm pressionado países como o Brasil onde o mercado de produtos hortícolas tem mudado rapidamente em função do rápido crescimento dos supermercados

Trade and biotechnology in Latin America: democratization, contestation and the politics of mobilization

This research explores the role of agrarian and environmental movements in contesting the development and promotion of agricultural biotechnology through trade liberalization in Latin America. Organized around themes of mobilization, participation and representation, it raises key questions about who mobilizes and how, and about the strategic dilemmas that arise when movements with different histories, membership bases and cultures of protest attempt to work together. Issues of accountability, representation and participation run through the analysis of strategies of organization and claim-making adopted by an eclectic range of groups seeking to contest the role of biotechnology in the structure of agricultural production, the institutions that manage that relationship and the discourses which sustain it. In particular, analysis centres on their responsiveness to the concerns and agendas of poorer groups in the front line of the ‘gene revolution’ as it plays out in the Latin American countryside, in particular in Argentina and Brazil, the key players in biotechnology in the region