The Economics of Soybean Disease Control

Worldwide soybean crop yields can achieve USD$130 billion per year in farm-level sales, but around 13% of these yields are lost to disease. Effective disease management could generate significant economic benefits, and while disease management strategies do exist, their application remains limited among producers, often due to an incomplete understanding of disease incidence and severity, as well as perceived complexities of these strategies and a lack of information regarding success rates. This book presents an economic perspective on disease control, with an emphasis on producer choice among alternative technologies and potential changes in cropping systems. It provides an overview of global soybean diseases, their economic significance and management, and covers farm-level decision making, economic payoffs of alternative disease practices and key uncertainties. The book also outlines a global economic model that evaluates disease distribution and management implications.