An environmental yardstick in farm economic modelling of future pesticide use: the case of arable farming.

The integration of a new environmental yardstick for pesticide use in an economic farm model designed to monitor the environmental-economic interplay under changing price and policy conditions is discussed. The model is used to compare the effects of two control systems for pesticide use in arable farming in the Netherlands: the governmental system focusing on the amount of active ingredients used per hectare; and an alternative based on the detailed environmental criteria of the yardstick. The application for arable farming on a sandy soil indicates that, in the context of the national pesticides use reduction objectives for the year 2000, the economic effects of the two systems are similar. The environmental implications are far better represented by the yardstick, however.