An Analysis of Climate Impacts on Herbicide, Insecticide, and Fungicide Expenditures Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The climate alters pest populations and in turn, pesticide use and cost as well as use of other pest treatments. This paper analyzes the effect of the climate on pesticide expenditures by category, namely: fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides. This is done by econometrically estimating the effects of climate variables such as mean temperature and precipitation as well as the number of hot days, cold days, and wet days on the mean and variance of expenditures by category. The estimates are performed for corn, soybeans, spring and winter wheat, and potatoes. We find that climate factors influence fungicide, herbicide, and insecticide expenditures and that this influence is heterogeneous, varying in nature across crops and pesticide categories. Moreover, we find that climate extremes are more important in determining pesticide expenditures than climate averages in several cases.

published proceedings

  • AGRONOMY-BASEL

altmetric score

  • 27.7

author list (cited authors)

  • Rhodes, L. A., & McCarl, B. A.

citation count

  • 13

complete list of authors

  • Rhodes, Lauren A||McCarl, Bruce A

publication date

  • May 2020

publisher