A study of the costs of pest and disease control in horticultural crop
s (cucumber, aubergine, green beans, yellow melon, peppers, tomatoes,
squash and water melon) covered a total of 84 plots in Spanish greenho
uses for the period July 1991 to June 1992. The average cost of pest a
nd disease control was 20.39 Pta m-2 comprising insecticides/acaricide
s 6.75, fungicides 5.25, application labour 5.14 and other pesticides
(mainly soil disinfectants) 3.55 Pta m-2. This cost is regarded as a c
onsiderable portion of the overall cost of cultivation (16.46%). An ec
onometric analysis of tomato and pepper crops using a deterministic fr
ontier model yielded data on technical efficiency of the chemical cont
rol. Average technical efficiency was 57.43% for tomato crops and 61.4
4% for pepper crops. These results indicate an excessive and inappropr
iate use of chemical control. As a first approximation, the implementa
tion of an integrated pest management programme did not prove to be ec
onomically viable in these circumstances: better economic adjustment t
o such a programme is required.