Cost and Benefit Analysis of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) Management Technology in Georgia

Recent trend depicts that tomatoes and tomatoes products rank 2nd most important vegetable crop in the United States after potatoes and potatoes products contributing 20 percent of total vegetable production. More-so, tomato is equally ranked 2nd in the United States in terms of production value, generating $1.3 billion after head lettuce that contributed $1.4 billion in the same time period. In 2006, 422,000 acres of tomatoes were planted in the United States. Tomato is equally an important economic crop in the state of Georgia. In 2008, it ranked 14th in the Georgia vegetable acreage as 3,985 acres were planted. It also ranked 6th in terms of farm gate value in the same time period generating $51.2 million. Thrips-vectored tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is a serious disease capable of causing damages to the plant, fruits, quality and reducing yields drastically. Managing TSWV can be complex. For instance, metalized UV-mulch may significantly reduce TSWV, but delay tomato maturity, potentially affecting price and market window. Also, resistant tomato lines may eliminate damages due to TSWV, but could have negative horticultural attributes that standard TSWV-susceptible hybrids do not. TSWV can induce irregular ripening in fruit after packing, affecting post harvest costs. This study is aimed at providing the optimal return per unit of enterprise using cost and benefit estimates of the combination of available inputs used in the various management strategies. Thereafter, the result of the differentially developed techniques and risk-rated cost and benefit budgets will be used to determine which of the risk-rated thrips, TSWV and IPM decision criteria would provide superior pareto-optimal economic and financial benefit to tomato growers