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Sweet Corn Program Benefits Measure in the Millions - September 2002

September 5, 2002

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA -- In just one growing year, over $6 million in economic and environmental benefits resulted from Pennsylvania vegetable growers implementing integrated pest management tactics into their sweet corn growing programs.

Integrated pest management, or IPM, aims to manage pests -- such as insects, diseases, weeds and animals -- by combining physical, biological and chemical tactics that are safe, profitable and environmentally compatible.

Each year, Pennsylvania growers plant more than 20,000 acres of sweet corn, ranking the state among the top ten nationally in sweet corn production. But this $25 million crop is annually at risk to such devastating pests as the corn earworm, fall army worm and European corn borer.

According to recent analysis of a 1999 statewide survey, IPM in Pennsylvania appears to have produced economic benefits of about $6.7 million and environmental benefits valued at about $6.8 million during the study year. "It's clear that IPM provides significant economic and environmental benefits to the state," says Ed Rajotte, Pennsylvania IPM coordinator and Penn State professor of entomology.

Analysis of the results of the survey was completed by Virginia Tech's Jason Beddow in his master's thesis entitled "Protocols for the assessment of economic and environmental effects of integrated pest management programs".

According to Beddow, state IPM programs are often called on to demonstrate their impacts. While many studies demonstrate techniques for assessing various economic and environmental effects of IPM, the literature provides little guidance on incorporating the techniques to perform complete assessments of IPM programs. "In order to provide for consistent and effective evaluation of programs and for comparison across programs, a uniform set of techniques for IPM program appraisal is needed. Such techniques should address the necessity of evaluating IPM programs individually based on both the attributes of the program and on the goals and objectives of the funding agency," states Beddow.

Beddow developed a survey that was distributed directly to sweet corn growers during the 1999 Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association meetings in late January. The survey was designed to collect data on the growers' use of selected production practices with an emphasis on pesticide use. SkyBit Inc. weather and pest forecasting service (http://www.skybit.com) provided a prize of a one-year subscription as an incentive to fill out the survey.

Respondents included both large and small farms, ranging in size from 2.5 to 2,500 acres. The results of the survey indicate that the majority of respondents use several IPM tactics in their sweet corn operation. Most respondents (92%) reported rotating at least some of their sweet corn with other crops, while 77 percent said they scouted before deciding to apply insecticides and post-emergent herbicides (91%).

Over half of the respondents (61%) cultivated sweet corn fields to control weeds. When the practice was used, it was employed on an average 51% of sweet corn acreage. Overall, the practice was used on 26% of acreage. Cultivation appears to be a longstanding method of controlling weeds, in use for an average of 18 years among those currently using the practice.

An important component of the Pennsylvania sweet corn IPM program is a telephone hotline (1-800-PENN-IPM) that provides statewide scouting information for important sweet corn insect pests. "We track a variety of sweet corn insect pests and post the information on our new Web site, http://pestwatch.cas.psu.edu/, as well as the hotline," says Shelby Fleischer, associate professor of entomology at Penn State. Exactly half of the respondents reported calling this hotline. Each user of the number made an average of 4.7 calls to the number over the growing season.

According to Beddow, the adoption of IPM practices may result in a combination of cost increases and decreases. Most notably, IPM adoption is expected to decrease the cost of chemical pesticides as non-chemical controls are substituted for pesticides. However, implementation of IPM practices will increase some costs such as scouting and other information gathering costs. IPM adoption may influence returns via price premiums or changes in yields.

"Assuming a constant price of $2.25 per dozen ears, per-acre total revenue for adopters in the sample was $279 greater than that of non-adopters. Further, adopters exhibited lower expenditure on chemicals and chemical applications and increased expenditure on scouting and trapping when compared with non-adopters," states Beddow. Overall, adopters in the sample spent $100 less than non-adopters per acre of sweet corn. The difference in net revenue between adopters and non-adopters was $295.

To view the entire independent economic and environmental analysis of the Pennsylvania
Sweet Corn IPM program, download Beddow's thesis available at http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/etd-09272000-14340016/

The Pennsylvania IPM program is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and nonagricultural situations. For more information, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu.