'08 Insecticide Use Estimate

About 600,000 acres of U.S. sugarbeets were treated with an insecticide during the 2008 growing season at a total cost to growers of approximately $15 million.

That investment provided a 17-fold return on investment in terms of protected production. Without the use of insecticides, sugarbeet production would have been about 23% lower.

Those estimates come from a recently released report by the Crop Protection Research Institute (CPRI), a research unit of the Washington, D.C.-based CropLife Foundation. CPRI’s director, Leonard Gianessi, authored the report. Titled “The Value of Insecticides in U.S. Crop Produc-tion,” it covers numerous field and specialty crops. Its case studies were reviewed and are supported by a number of organizations, including the American Sugarbeet Growers Association.

The main sugarbeet insect discussed in the CPRI report is the sugarbeet root maggot. It’s noted that the root maggot infests nearly 50% of U.S. beet acres at levels that can cause economic damage. “The sugarbeet root maggot is the most destructive insect pest of sugarbeet in Minnesota, North Dakota and Idaho, and secondarily in Nebraska, Colorado, Montana and Wyoming,” Gianessi writes.

In the absence of control measures (i.e., at-planting granular insecticides), yield losses in the Red River Valley can reach 40%. “Insecticide use in the Red River Valley has remained between 73-83% of sugarbeet acres planted,” the report states.

Summarizing overall crop insecticide use and impact, the CPRI report says that 45 million acres of U.S. crops were treated with an insecticide in 2008 at a cost to growers of $1.2 billion. It’s estimated the yield benefit from those treatments totaled 144 billion pounds at a value of $22.9 billion. There was $19 benefit per dollar of insecticide cost, the report states.

To view a full copy of the Crop Protection Research Institute’s 2008 insecticide use and value report, go to www.croplifefoundation.org.