Impacts of Microbial Inoculants as Integrated Pest Management Tools in Apple Production

This article analyzes the impacts of microbial inoculant (MI) technology, which is a part of integrated pest management, on the U.S. apple production using farm-level data. To test the likely production impacts suggested by agronomic literature, we estimate a pesticide use function and stochastic production functions with damage control input specification. The results show that although adoption of the MI technology does not reduce the use of pesticides, the technology has a significant positive impact on yields and is associated with higher technical production efficiency rates.