AGRICULTURALRODENTCONTROLUSINGBARNOWLS: IS ITPROFITABLE?

We develop a model to evaluate the profitability of controlling rodent damage by placing barn owl nesting boxes in agricultural areas. The model incorporates the spatial patterns of barn owl predation pressure on rodents, and the impact of this predation pressure on nesting choices and agricultural output. We apply the model to data collected in Israel and find the installation of nesting boxes profitable. While this finding indicates that economic policy instruments to enhance the adoption of this biological control method are redundant, it does support stricter regulations on rodent control using rodenticides. Key words: agricultural damage control, environmental regulation, barn owl, rodent. JEL codes: Q15, Q18, Q57. Rodent damage to agriculture results in double-digit percentages of yield reduction across the globe (Singleton 2003; Leirs 2003). This considerable damage suggests that the effectiveness of conventional rodent-control methods such as tillage, sanitation, trap-ping, and rodenticide applications is limited (Stenseth et al. 2003). The application of rodenticides is frequently ineffective due to the rapid immigration of rodents from adjacent untreated areas, and because rodent population outbreaks are unpredictable. Moreover, rodenticides are often consid-ered by farmers to be too costly (Skonhof