Use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in frontier areas: A case study in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon

Cristian Vasco, Bolier Torres, Estefanía Jácome, Alexandra Torres, David Eche and Christian Velasco

Land Use Policy, 2021, vol. 107, issue C

Abstract: The excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture is one of the main sources of pollution globally. While a significant body of research has focused on analyzing the socioeconomic drivers of deforestation in the Amazon basin, far less attention has been paid to explaining why Amazonian people use chemicals in agricultural production. Using data from a household survey, this paper aims at analyzing the drivers of expenditure on chemical fertilizers and pesticides among Kichwa and mestizo colonist populations in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon. The results show that most households in the research area use chemicals, which seems to be related to most households engaged in the production of naranjilla, a citrus fruit that requires high amounts of pesticides to prosper in the Amazon. Expenditure on chemicals is principally driven by wealth, access to credit and land use patterns, with households with more land in crops spending more on fertilizers and pesticides. An important finding is that households receiving money from government social programs spend more on both chemical fertilizers and pesticides than non-recipient households. Ethnicity does not play any role in shaping expenditures on both chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Our results reflect that clear, consistent and coordinated policies are necessary to reconcile conservation and rural development in the Amazon, since, at present, ambiguous and even contradictory policies are not effective in achieving that goal.

Keywords: Chemical fertilizers; Pesticides; Naranjilla; Kichwa; Colonists; Ecuadorian Amazon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837721002131
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:107:y:2021:i:c:s0264837721002131

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105490

Access Statistics for this article

Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen

More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joice Jiang ().