Could Society’s willingness to reduce pesticide use be aligned with Farmers’ economic self-interest?

In the context of the agreement of about 50% reduction in pesticide uses according to the accords du “Grenelle de l’environnement” in France, the central part of this study involves the assessment of agricultural intensification (AI) and agricultural extensification (AE) processes in crop activities.This is done with reference to pesticide uses per ha thereby helping to proffer a solution to the lingering questions of farmers as regards the use of inputs in an intensified manner or otherwise. With respect to this, a sample of 600 farms in the Meuse department was observed over a 12-year period. The analysis was essentially to assess cost efficiency dominance between the two technologies AE and AI using non parametric cost-functions which involves different characterizations of the reference set. This therefore helps to define the relative intensive and extensive technologies in terms of pesticide uses per ha, our empirical application therefore shows that AE process is a better option than AI not only for the society but also for the producers who could significantly reduce their operating costs.