Presentation Summary

Karen Klonsky, Dept. of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California - Davis/USA email:

Adoption of biological control practices is facilitated by 1)performance evaluation of specific practices, 2) information transfer from researchers to users and 3) financial incentives for adoption. Performance evaluation is a critical component of information transfer while financial incentives for adoption expedite the transformation of information into action by end users of biological control methods.

Measures of performance of biological control practices characterize either biological performance or economic performance. Biological measures include counts of beneficials, rate of parasitism, crop yield and crop quality. Economic measures can reflect performance at the individual user level or at a regional level and include cost of control, profit, and return on investment in development costs. Each measure requires a clear demarcation of the geographic boundary and the time frame of the analysis. The credibility of performance appraisals may be influenced by the source of the information and the method of analysis. For example, some growers are more receptive to on ñ farm research and demonstration projects than they are to replicated trials at an Experiment Station where the robustness of the results may be at issue. Therefore, the venue for providing information about a biological control method can be as critical to its adoption as the potential performance of the control method itself. Information transfer of biological control performance occurs from many sources including Cooperative Extension, pest control advisors, industry, peers, and public private partnerships. The traditional Cooperative Extension model follows a straight line of information delivery from the researcher to the end user through meetings, newsletters and publications. Of course, individual Extension agents must have an interest and knowledge of biological control for information transfer to be successful. Private pest control advisors must have an interest and knowledge of biological control for information transfer to be successful. Private pest control advisors and industry provide product information directly to clients. The degree to which companies producing biological controls engage in information delivery seems to vary dramatically from company to company. The role of peers in communicating the success or failure of biological controls through anecdotal evidence should not be underestimated. Finally, public - private partnerships for information delivery to facilitate adoption offer a way for end users to directly participate in the process of developing successful control methods. For example, the Biologically Integrated Orchard Systems project (BIOS) in California is a three-year voluntary program administered by a nonprofit organization providing information, training and scouting services to its members. Financial incentives encourage adoption through cost sharing, direct payments and generating information about successful use of alternative farming practices. California has provided money to public ñ private partnerships, demonstration projects and individuals through the Biologically Integrated Farming Systems Grants program and the partnerships, demonstration projects and individuals through the Biologically Integrated Farming Systems Grants program and the Innovators in Pest Management Grants Program. At the federal level, the Wetlands Reserve Program, Conservation Reserve Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program all provide funding to growers to adopt resource conserving practices that could include biological control.

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