Strategy for pesticide use: frequency and applications

A pest control model with multiple treatments is presented. Population dynamics and damage rates are temperature dependent with predation aHected by pesticide application. Pesticide tolerance distribution is used for constructing the estimated kill function. Mathematical-numerical optimization is applied, selecting frequency and dosage which minimize control costs and crop damage. Key words: pest control; kill function; numerical optimization; population dynamics; multiple treatments. T H E APPLICATION of pesticides as a means ofpest control is becoming an increasinglymore important issue and, hence, is attract-ing more attention of economists [3, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 14]. Pollution aspects, reinforced by the current "energy crisis " which will undoubtedly boost the price of pesticides, add more dimen-sions to the widespread use of pesticides. There are good reasons to believe that farmers overuse pesticides as a means of insurance against pes