Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
To estimate potential coexistence costs, we took data from Degen-
hardt et al., who analyzed the impact of existing pest management sys-
tems against the European Corn Borer and compared the efficiency of
the differing systems. Compared to biological and chemical pest manage-
ment methods, Bt maize had the highest impact on larvae of the Euro-
pean Corn Borer with efficiency rates of nearly 100 percent. Cost calcu-
lations of Degenhardt and colleagues (2003) result in economic benefits
of around 84 to 93
/ha for cultivating Bt maize by considering higher
yields in the range of up to 15 percent and seed costs of plus 35
€
/ha com-
pared to conventional seeds. Users of synthetic insecticides gain between
18 and 55
€
/ha when applying common insecticide management meth-
ods. Non-insecticide users do not benefit from their ecological insecti-
cide treatment (trichogramma application) in case of high infestation lev-
els. In such a situation their losses amount to 52 to 57
€
/ha (Degenhardt
€
et al., 2003).
To quantify the costs of the buffer zone, we assumed a profit of
38
/ha, which equals to 3.4 percent and 6.2 percent of variable
costs of conventional maize. This profit implies higher yields
2
between
3 percent and 4 percent for Bt maize, higher seed costs of 35
/ha to 66
€
€
€
/ha and
insecticide savings of 40
/ha (Degenhardt et al., 2003).
The additional costs of buffer zones around Bt maize fields are
increasing with higher adoption rates as indicated in Table 7. In case of a
20-m buffer zone the aggregated costs in the region range from 19,289
€
€
(10 percent scenario) to 76,134
(50 percent scenario) in model region
I. These result in additional costs of 222
€
per farm in the 10 percent sce-
€
nario and 175
per farm in the 50 percent scenario. In model region II
where only half of the maize is grown compared to region I additional
costs per farm range from 48
€
/farm (Table 8).
The additional costs increase consequently when higher isolation dis-
tances of 50 m and 100 m, respectively, have to be applied to meet the
0.9 percent threshold of adventitious presence of GMmaize (Table 8). In
/farm to 33
€
€
2
Price for conventional maize in five-year average is 117.7
€
/tonne (tax included).
