TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF PLANT-PROTECTION IN SPANISH GREENHOUSES

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.