The Impact of Integrated Pest Management Information Dissemination Methods on Insecticide Use and Efficiency: Evidence from Rice Producers in South Vietnam

This article examines the impact of two Integrated Pest Management information dissemination approaches on insecticide use and efficiency of Vietnamese rice farmers. Specifically, we investigate the impact of Farmer Field Schools (FFS) and "No Early Spray" (NES) mass media campaigns by utilizing econometric approaches that control for endogeneity and selection problems. Our results suggest that farmers exposed to FFS and NES information are more technically efficient than control farmers who have not been exposed to information from FFS or NES. However, only FFS farmers, not NES farmers, seem to have significantly reduced their insecticide use relative to non-FFS or non-NES control farmers. Copyright 2009 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association