Weed management: the broader context - Ecological Management of Agricultural Weeds - page 501

research and extension activities favor increases in farm scale, greater capital
investment,and continued dependence on agrichemical inputs.Until govern-
ment policies integrate social, environmental, and production goals, indus-
trial farms with sufficient credit and capital to ride out periods of low prices
will continue to acquire the land and facilities of financially stressed smaller-
scale farms (Strange, 1988, p. 104). Rather than cutting use of all inputs, cost
containment on industrial farms is likely to involve reducing labor expenses
and increasing reliance on purchased inputs, including herbicides.
When government programs subsidize only a few crops and link payments
to yield levels and land areas planted with these “program crops,”diverse rota-
tions become economically unattractive to farmers (National Research
Council, 1989, pp. 235-40).This in turn increases the uniformity of a region's
cropland, exacerbates weed problems, and provokes greater reliance on herbi-
cides (see Chapter 8). Pretty, Vorley & Keeney (1998) noted a strong positive
correlation between crop subsidy levels and pesticide use (kg ha 1 ) in Japan,
the European Union, the USA, and Brazil.
Government subsidies that lower pesticide costs to farmers directly favor
high rates of pesticide use (Pearce & Tinch, 1998), largely to the exclusion of
other pest management tactics. Repetto (1985) surveyed nine developing
countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa in the mid 1980s and found that
government pesticide subsidies ranged from 19% to 89% of full retail costs.
Until such subsidies are removed, farmers have little incentive to adopt eco-
logically based strategies for managing weeds and other pests.
To improve farm income in developed countries, government programs
often export crop surpluses to developing countries, thereby increasing
supply and reducing crop prices in those countries.Though urban consumers
in developing countries may pay less for food in the near term, local farmers
lose income and incentives to maintain production (World Commission on
Environment and Development, 1987, pp. 122-3, 129; McMichael, 1998). In
effect, this type of agricultural globalization creates dependency on food
imports in developing countries and reinforces farm industrialization in food
exporting countries. When foreign exchange rates become unfavorable or
funds for purchasing food shrink, food dependency may manifest itself as
food shortages.
Given the pervasive effects of current government policies on farming prac-
tices and financial returns,politicians and policy makers must carefully analyze
the differences between ecological and conventional weed management
systems. Would lower weed densities be observed if crop rotations lengthened
in response to policy changes? Would ecological weed management appear
more favorable financially if conventional systems had to include costs of