Abstract
A study of the costs of pest and disease control in horticultural crops (cucumber, aubergine, green beans, yellow melon, peppers, tomatoes, squash and water melon) covered a total of 84 plots in Spanish greenhouses for the period July 1991 to June 1992. The average cost of pest and disease control was 20.39 Pta m −2 comprising insecticides/acaricides 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 considerable portion of the overall cost of cultivation (16.46%). An econometric analysis of tomato and pepper crops using a deterministic frontier model yielded data on technical efficiency of the chemical control. Average technical efficiency was 57.43% for tomato crops and 61.44% for pepper crops. These results indicate an excessive and inappropriate use of chemical control. As a first approximation, the implementation of an integrated pest management programme did not prove to be economically viable in these circumstances; better economic adjustment to such a programme is required.
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