PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE INSECT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: LEARNING FROM ORGANIC FARMERS

Organic farmers are dependent on alternative, biology-based insect control methods and are innovative in their on-farm experimentation with new strategies. By understanding the factors that influence the insect management portfolio chosen by organic farmers, research and education programs to promote sustainable insect management practices for all farmers may be devised. A negative binomial model of the factors influencing the number of alternative practices adopted is applied to survey data from American organic farmers. It is found that college-educated farmers with smaller acreages, more than half their acreage in horticultural production, and extensive experience with organic production have the greatest diversity in their insect management portfolios. There is a strong indication that on a regional basis, uncertainty over institutional and infrastructure support for organic agriculture results in the adoption of more strategies.