Economic Analysis of Integrated Pest Management Adoption in Apple Cultivation: a Turkish Case Study

Abstract

This study aims to determine adoption level of farmers to integrated pest management (IPM) program and also to analyse the agricultural pesticide usage in apple growing. The primary data includes a research carried out through a questionnaire method which was conducted to apple producers in Antalya, Denizli, Isparta, Karaman, Konya and Nigde. According to the information received from the survey farms were separated into four groups according to IPM adoption level. It has been found out that the amount of pesticides used per hectare decreases according to the adoption of integrated pest management. While 1 kg apple cost found USD 0.40 in farms which does not follow IPM, USD 0.38 in farms which follow IPM. However, net profit per hectare is USD 556.75 in farms which does not follow integrated pest management; it is USD 482.51 in farms which follow high level IPM. In conclusion; to implement an efficient IPM, producers primarily should take cultural precautions and in the last resort they should look for chemical methods. They should avoid extreme use of nitrogenous fertilization, they should use high quality saplings, create a suitable ecological infrastructure and habitat management to conserve natural enemies of pests, select environment friendly pesticides, make descriptions of natural enemies of apple pests, give trainings about how to prevent pests contamination.