A method for comparing pesticide usage patterns between farmers

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Abstract
SUMMARY: A method is described for standardizing data from surveys of insecticide and fungicide usage, to enable comparisons to be made between farmers. Pesticide usage by the fruit and vegetable farmers surveyed was initially coded in units, and then standardized by taking each farmer's deviation from a regional average for the crop, expressed as standard measure. The vegetable farmers studied were less variable in their usage of pesticides for the control of aphid, caterpillar and blight on crops harvested late in the season rather than early (cabbage, lettuce, potatoes and sprouts). There was evidence that farmers did not heed the Beaumont period warnings issued by the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service (ADAS) for blight attack on potatoes. Also on potato crops, insecticide use against aphids was influenced by the level of fungicide usage for blight control. Standardized insecticide and fungicide usage values for individual farmers were very uniform. A two‐way analysis of variance showed that most of the variation in the model was accounted for by variation between farmers rather than by variation between crops on the same farm. By expressing pesticide usage data in this standardized form, one can measure the element in pesticide usage which is not related to pest incidence. This can then be used to study the influence of other factors on pesticide usage.

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