ERS/USDA Briefing Room - Agricultural Chemicals and Production Technology:overview

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		agricultural chemicals and production technology: overview

Farmers combine land, water, commercial inputs, labor, and their management skills into practices and systems to produce food and fiber. To sustain production over time, farmers must make a profit and preserve their resource and financial assets. Society wants food and fiber products that are low-cost, safe to consume, and aesthetically pleasing, and wants production systems that preserve or enhance the environment. These often competing goals and pressures are reflected not only in the inputs made available for production, but also in how the inputs are selected, combined, and managed at the farm level. Increasingly, farmers are facing pressures to change from conventional production practices to more environmentally friendly practices. ERS research examines the critical role of economic and environmental factors in the adoption of management practices and technologies, including the use of conservation tillage, integrated pest management practices, precision farming, nutrient testing, organic farming, and biotechnology.

This research program evaluates agricultural technologies and practices and their contributions to sustainable agricultural production systems. What factors influence the decisions of farmers to use environmentally preferred pest, nutrient, and soil management practices, what are the environmental and economic effects of these decisions, and how can government policies influence those decisions and consequences? Modeling the adoption of individual technologies and systems of practices draws heavily from the annual Agricultural Resource Management Surveys (ARMS) and the Vegetable and Fruit Chemical Use Surveys.

Research is organized in three programs to develop information on pest management, soil management, and nutrient management. Each program includes consideration of how individual management practices and technologies fit with the production system, and how they contribute to sustainability.

Pest management
Farmers rely heavily upon pesticides to combat the significant yield and quality losses to crops caused by insects, disease, and weeds. However, biological and cultural methods, genetically engineered crops, and biological products such as Bacillus thuringiensis are increasingly used to control pests. This project examines the economics of alternative pest control methods and how policies—such as the USDA/EPA implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) and the methyl bromide phaseout provisions of the Clean Air Act—affect farmers' pest management choices. Survey data will show the extent of chemical and nonchemical pest management practices on major field crops and selected fruit and vegetable crops, as well as the factors that influence their adoption.
Contact: Jorge Fernandez-Cornejo and Craig Osteen.

Soil management
The way farmers manage soil, including their tillage and rotation systems, can greatly alter fertilizer, pesticide and other input use. Responsible soil management can reduce soil erosion and limit water and chemical infiltration and runoff. This project examines the characteristics of soil management practices such as tillage and rotation systems, and analyzes the economic and policy factors that influence farmers to adopt them. The project will assess the economic and environmental effects of these choices.
Contact: Richard Magleby.

Nutrient management
Crop and livestock production often delivers excess nutrients (nitrogen, phoshphate, etc.) to the environment, which can pollute ground and surface waters and harm human and ecosystem health. Certain technologies and practices—soil testing, crop rotation, nitrogen inhibitors, the use of manure, fertilizer application method and timing, and precision agriculture—may reduce these harmful impacts. This project will assess the extent to which such nutrient management strategies are adopted, and analyze the effects of policies and regulations imposed on animal feeding operations.
Contact: Stan Daberkow and Noel Gollehon.

for more information, contact: Lee Christensen
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page updated: March 22, 2001

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