Is Area-wide Pest Management Useful? The Case of Citrus Greening

Assistant Professor Ariel Singerman is visiting from the University of Florida and will present "Is Area-wide Pest Management Useful? The Case of Citrus Greening", in the QAAFI Science Seminar Series. 

Citrus greening or Huanglongbing (HLB) currently poses a severe threat to citrus production worldwide. No treatment or management strategy is yet available to cure the disease. While working on developing short- and long-term treatments, scientists recommend controlling the vector of the disease, and area-wide pest management has been proposed as a superior alternative to individual pest management. We analyzed a unique data set of farm-level citrus yields in Florida that allowed us to test the hypothesis. We found that yields of blocks located in an area with higher participation in coordinated sprays were 28%, 73% and 98% higher in 2012/13, 2013/14, and 2014/15, respectively, compared to the yields of blocks under the same management but located in an area with lower participation; providing evidence on the efficiency of a well-performing pest management area to deal with HLB. In addition, we present survey data that provide insights about producers’ behavior and attitudes toward the area-wide pest management program. Despite the relatively high economic benefit we found area-wide pest management can provide, the strategic uncertainty involved in relying on neighbors seems to impose too high of a cost for most growers, who end up not coordinating sprays.

A/Prof Ariel Singerman - University of Florida

Ariel Singerman is an Assistant Professor in the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida, and is based at the Citrus Research and Education Center, Lake Alfred, FL. Dr. Singerman holds a Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University. His fields of interest include Agricultural Economics and Applied Econometrics. Dr. Singerman research interests are currently focused on examining the different economic aspects related to production of specialty crops, particularly citrus, and the adoption of new technologies and management strategies that deal with pests and disease.