ECONOMIC SURVEY RESULTS AND REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF FIXED AND VARIABLE COSTS FOR THE AREAWIDE PEST MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

Economic questionnaires were administered in 1997 and 1998 to farmers in the Indiana/Illinois, Kansas, and Iowa sites involved in the Areawide Pest Management (AWPM) program for the control of corn rootworms. These questionnaires provided information regarding variable and fixed costs of production for fields located within the management site and also the companion acreage. The economic analysis indicated that yields, variable costs per acre, and machinery costs per acre were not statistically different within a site across the inner core, outer ring, and companion acreage, with relatively few exceptions. This gives a solid baseline for a Net Present Value comparison between the soil insecticide and AWPM methods for control of corn rootworms, since fixed and variable costs of production not associated with corn rootworm control can be assumed to be statistically the same between the inner core, outer ring, and companion acreage. Various information regarding farming practices among the sites was obtained from the economic questionnaires, such as adoption rates of GPS (site-specific farming) and Bt corn (resistant to the European corn borer). Other observations included soil insecticide use, crop rotations, tillage types, and crop consultant use