Impact of integrated pest management technologies on farm revenues of rural households: The case of smallholder Arabica coffee farmers

Abstract

Enhancing farmers’ incomes through the utilisation of improved agricultural technologies is an important step towards poverty eradication among rural households in developing countries. Using empirical data from small-scale Arabica coffee farmers in Manafwa district in Uganda, this paper assesses the effect of integrated pest management (IPM) on net coffee revenue. The study also estimates the rural income multiplier of IPM adoption. After controlling for endogeneity and selection bias, we found that the multiplier effect of IPM use is positive and significant. The increase in income arising from the use of IPM leads to a more than proportional increase in demand for farm non-tradable and non-farm non-tradable commodities. Hence, coffee farming with IPM has a higher rural income multiplier than conventional coffee farming. These findings provide evidence that the incomes of smallholder coffee farmers and rural community economies can be raised through the use of production technologies that are less environmentally invasive than conventional coffee-growing technologies.