Use of Pesticides in Pacific Northwest
Agriculture/ A Regulatory Perspective
by
Juanita Wagner
Robert Coughlin
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Region 10, Seattle, WA
October, 1985
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CONTENTS
Introduction
Conclusions
I. Agricultural Economy of the Pacific Northwest
A. Characteristics of Northwest Agriculture
B. Major Crops
C. Shifting Crop Patterns
II. Non-Farm Institutions Affecting Agricultural
Use of Pesticides
A. Registration
B. Experiment Stations
C. Extension Agents
D. Applicators
E. Effect of Law
III. Pesticide Use Characterisitics in Northwest Agriculture
A. Comparative Use
B. Factors Governing Pesticide Use
IV. Outlook for Future Pesticide Use
A. General Outlines
B. Emerging Specifics
V. Policy Considerations
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Tables and Figure
Table 1: Comparison of U.S. and Pacific Northwest
Farms, 1982
Table 2: Long Term Agriculture Land Use Trends in the PI\IW
Table 3: Major Crops
Table 4: Shift in Pasture and Animal Inventories, 1974 - 1982
Table 5: Shift in Cropland Harvested, 1974 - 1982
Table 6: Number of Pest Control Agents Applied to
Selected Crops, 1974 - 1984
Table 7: Principal Pesticides Applied to Some PI\IW
Crops in Early 1980's
Table 8: Toxicity of Certain Pesticides
Table 9: Comparative Pesticide Use Characteristics, 1982
Table 10: Agricultural Sub-regions of the Pacific Northwest
Figure: Northwest Agricultural Regions
Table 11: Relative Propensity of Agricultural Regions to Employ
Pesticides
Table 12: Measures of Agricultural Intensity vs.
Propensity to Employ Pesticides
Table 13: Relative Sales of Livestock vs. Propensity to
Employ Pesticides
Table 14: Comparative Specialization, Sales Dollars per
Acre of Total Cropland Harvested
Table 15: Crop Group Sales per Cropland Acre vs.
Propensity to Employ Pesticides
Table 16: Acres Treated by Pesticide Classes as a
Fraction of Cropland
Table 17: Crop Group Sales per Cropland Acre vs.
Percent of Cropland Treated by Pesticide Class
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INTRODUCTION
This project is an attempt to provide basic background on
agricultural use of pesticides in the Pacific Northwest and to outline
circumstances that may affect future use. Two approaches were used. The
first, a quantitative one, examines crop production and pesticide usage in
the area in the recent past in order to find trends which may indicate
future crop production. From future crop production it may be possible to
predict future pesticide usage. The second approach, a qualitative one,
involved interviewing experiment station scientists, university
scientists, and various persons involved directly in agriculture. From
these interviews and an examination of current pesticide usage, it was
hoped that the influences shaping the future might become more evident.
-------
Conclusions
0 Northwest agriculture is more intensive — involving greater use of
irrigation, higher mean investment, and higher value crops — than U.S.
agriculture as a whole.
0 Animal products and grains, principally wheat, are the dominant
products of Northwest farms; but there is a continuing shift to row crops,
orchards, and specialty crops, where the region's share of national output
is disproportionately great.
0 Registration under FIFRA is a precondition for marketing a
pesticide in the U.S. The process is time consuming and costly, and a
significant influence on the nature and availability of agricultural use
of pesticides.
0 Agricultural experiment stations and county extension agents are
the principal influences on pesticide application practices of Northwest
farmers.
0 There is a great number of pesticides available to farmers. That
number increases rapidly through new product development, product
modification, and product rotation.
0 Direct toxicity of all classes of pesticides appears to be
increasing progressively. Regulation enforces, or at least contributes
to, the trend by imposing an implicit tradeoff between toxicity and
persistence or carcinogenicity.
0 Pesticide use is increasing faster on Northwest farms than U.S.
farms generally; and Northwest farmers who employ pesticides apply them
more intensely than the average U.S. farmer.
0 Pesticide use is an integral feature of intensive agriculture,
increasing as share of farmland devoted to crops increases, and as value
of farm output increases.
0 Herbicides are the dominant type of pesticide applied; and their
use is associated primarily with production of grains.
0 Use of insecticides, disease controls, and growth regulators is
associated with row crops and orchards.
0 Nematocide use is closely correlated with irrigation and with
production of grasses.
0 Proliferation of pesticides is a consequence of development of
resistance by target species through the operation of natural selection,
so the tendency appears to be irreversible.
"^^Fne/re/is) no mechanism, .other tha7k the/fOe o-f^esMcide
rat{plTS, /in/place |att-Kis jtjme foi^monitoj>rng any aspect of
pestfcides prodtfction or-use.
0 Major policy issues relating to pesticide use and regulation occur
outside the provenance of EPA Region 10.
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I. The Agricultural Economy of the Pacific Northwest
A. Characteristics of Northwest- Agriculture
Agriculture is the principal resource based industry of the Pacific
Northwest, accounting directly or indirectly for seven to eight percent of
the region's personal income.
Northwest farms, on average, are larger, better capitalized, and more
efficient that other U.S. farms. They mount a greater investment in
cattle, equipment, and irrigation per farm and per acre, and extract
larger sales revenues both per farm and per acre.
Table 1
Comparison of U.S. and Pacific Northwest Farms, 1982
Variable
US
Idaho
Oregon
Wash.
PIMM
PIMW
% US
No. of Farms
Farmland, 1000A
Mean Size Farm, A
Cropland Harvested,
1000A
Irrigated Land, 1000A
Equipment Investment,
$ Millions
per Farm, $
Cattle on Farms
No Farms with
>. 500 cattle
Farm Products Sold,
$ Millions
Crops,
$ Millions
Animal Products,
$ Millions
Mean Sales per Farm
2,
240,976
986,797
440
326,306
24,714
13,922
563
4,888
34,087
17,740
520
3,306
36,080
16,470
456
5,279
104,
49,002
93,663
41,919
475,827
23,381
131,900
62,256
69,644
$58,858
3,450
1,454
59,016
1,925,419
680
2,232
1,161
1,071
$90,297
1,808
1,257
37,044
1,618,005
617
1,641
936
705
$48,130
1,638
1,653
45,947
1,321,820
309
2,831
1,715
1,116
$78,470
94,881 4.2
48,131 4.9
507 115.3
13,472 4.1
6,897 14.1
4,364 4.7
45,991 109.7
4,865,244 4.7
1,606 6.9
6,703 5.1
3,811 6.1
2,892 4.2
$70,651 120.0
In some respects the agricultural efficiency of the Northwest is
anomalous. Though area of farmland is large in proportion to number of
farms, the area of cropland harvested is somewhat less than average. Yet
crop sales per farm and per acre are distinctly higher than average —
sales per farm in 1982 were $40,166 vs. $27,781 for the nation, sales per
acre of cropland harvested were $283 vs. $191. Thus, despite the
extensive pattern of farm size and of equipment investment, the
agriculture of the region functions intensively, characterized by a
combination of high yields and high value commodities. The converse is
true of animal culture. Clearly, the mean area available for range and
pasture in the Northwest farm is greater than the U.S. average, the number
of large animal holdings is disproportionately great in the Northwest, and
mean number of cattle per farm (51.3 cattle and calves) is greater than
the national mean (46.6). Yet at $30,485 per farm in 1982, sales of
livestock and animal products in Northwest states were slightly below the
U.S. average of $31,078.
-------
The reasons for such departures from national norms are to be found
in the distinctive character of Northwest agriculture and its evolution
over the last forty years.
Mature did not intend the region for large scale agriculture. Much
of the area, including virtually all of that western portion of Oregon and
Washington with sufficient summer precipitation to produce dependable
crops, is mountainous. The bulk of the eastern uplands and river valleys
where topography is suited to farming is arid or semi arid. Oregon's
Willamette Valley, the initial focus of settlement, is the only sizeable
tract of land that is naturally favorable for farming. As a consequence,
the distribution of agricultural effort in the first third of the century
was narrow and specialized: belts of intensive truck farming and dairying
around each sizeable community; diverse specialty farms — the largest
concentration in the Willamette Valley — producing orchard and berry
crops and vegetables (notably green peas, snap beans and lima beans)
sufficient to support modest canneries; the bulk of the farm land spread
across elevated grasslands east of the Cascades devoted to either winter
wheat (watered by snowmelt, since virtually all precipitation occurs in
winter) or to grazing.
That format was modified only slightly by privately or cooperatively
sponsored local irrigation in the Yakima, Walla Walla and Snake River
valleys. But from the mid thirties until World War II, a series of
reclamation projects advanced the prevalence of irrigation in the
Worthwest. And after the war, larger and more ambitious projects extended
irrigation sufficiently to transform the character of Worthwest farming.
Irrigation allowed the introduction of field crops — hay, potatoes,
sugar beets, and field corn — on a massive scale. Equally significant,
with irrigation larger and more diverse vegetable and fruit production
became possible. Animal feeding and extensive dairy production developed
to complement grazing and local dairying. Agricultural specialization and
food processing scaled to national markets followed quickly. The area
devoted to wheat shrank. Grazing was relegated to increasingly marginal
lands.
By the early sixties, opportunities for economic irrigation projects
had virtually been eliminated. Sites for storage, for diversion and
gravity transmission of water over large distances, and of broad tracts
adaptable for surface irrigation had been exhausted by the rapid pace of
reclamation.
Yet the value of a dependable water supply to arid farmland had been
sufficiently demonstrated — on average, it increased crop sales per acre
by a factor of three, increased land value by up to an order of magnitude
— that private capital has supported its extension at a near constant
rate once large public project possibilities were exhausted. On both the
Snake Plain and on Washington's Columbia Plateau, deep wells and sprinkler
irrigation have continued to extend the reach of irrigation.
The record is summarized, in terms of agricultural land use changes, in
table 2.
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Table 2
Long Term Agricultural Land Use Trends in the PWW
Farms Farmland(ft) Cropland(A) Pasture(A) Irrigated Land(A)
1950 169,931 50,921,120 11,103,357 30,559,039 4,033,082
1954 158,356 53,053,240 11,335,834 32,938,803 4,593,072
1959 127,820 55,185,671 11,363,081 34,482,643 4,967,833
1964 114,992 54,863,353 11,408,337 34,416,803 5,559,001
1969 88,571 49,993,558 11,215,495 W/A 5,504,511
1974 79,843 49,177,605 12,690,869 I\I/A 5,729,503
1978 83,739 49,444,896 13,044,803 29,008,539 6,995,414
1982 94,881 48,131,099 13,472,291 27,607,970 6,896,795
Mean
Annual -2,751 -154,790 72,736 -144,219 86,477
Shift
r -.91 -.66 .88 -.65 .96
The total amount of farmland has receded steadily, declining at the
rate of almost 155,000 acres a year. Some loss has been a consequence of
urbanization and development, the replacement of agriculture by buildings,
roads, and reservoirs. The larger share appears to have been the
consequence of abandonment, with marginal farmland being allowed to revert
to forest or desert.
Loss of farmland has been confined to the last twenty-five years —
during the period of aggressive reclamation, amount of farmland increased
irregularly — and has occurred as a reduction in amount of idle land and
in land employed as range and pasture. Idle land — the portion of farms
allowed to lie fallow, used exclusively as woodland, or on which crop
failure occurred — declined at the rate of 70,447 acres peryear (r= -.92)
in the period 1950 - 1982. Land employed as pasture and range dropped at
a smoothed annual rate in excess of 144,000 acres per year.
On balance, the bulk of the lapsed pasture has been converted to crop
bearing land. Northwest cropland has expanded at the rate of almost
73,000 acres per year. The spread of irrigation has been even more
pronounced, exceeding 86,000 acres a year. The net effect has been that
growth of irrigation has allowed 73,000 acres of pasture a year to be
converted to cropland, 13,000 acres of dryland farming to be upgraded.
(Obviously, the pattern is neither that simple nor that regular.
Irrigation comes on in blocks, is employed in many instances as an
intermittent supplement to natural precipitation, and is not uncommonly
employed on improved pasture. The statement is intended to describe net
effects, not the actual course of events.)
In common with the rest of the nation, the Northwest has experienced
a process of farm consolidation that has reduced the number of farms and
increased their average size. Overall, almost 2,800 farms per year have
been eliminated over the course of the last three decades. As a
consequence, mean size has increased 69%, from 300 acres to 507 acres.
Given the steady rise in land under cultivation, the average acreage
harvested has more than doubled, rising from 65 to 142 acres per farm.
-------
More recently, the trend toward fewer and larger farms has reversed
itself in the Pacific Northwest. Since 1975 there has been a slight but
continuous rise in number of farms in the region. The tendency, which is
revealed in the various state yearbooks of agriculture, is common to all
three states and has occurred in every year of the period. It is not
known whether the tendency is part of a larger, national process; and it
would be pointless to speculate about its sources. What is clear is that
the trend is entirely consistent with the postwar evolution of Northwest
agriculture to progressively more intense farming practices.
B. Major Crops
Wheat is the principal crop, in terms of both acreage and sales
value, in each of the Northwest states. Together, the three states
account for more than a ninth of total U.S. wheat production. The crop is
predominantly soft, white winter wheat, preferred for production of pasta
and crackers. The region accounts for the major portion of U.S. soft
wheat production, with most of the output going to export.
Hay, principally alfalfa, which stands second in acreage planted,
ranks low in value of direct sales. The crop is consumed in the region,
more often than not at the farm of origin, and derives its market value
through its contribution to sales of animal products. In spite of its
sizeable production of feed and forage, the Worthwest has been, and
remains, a net importer of animal feed.
Together the principal feed grains, barley, oats, and field corn,
almost match acreage devoted to hay. But while the Worthwest produces a
substantial portion of the nation's barley, its output of the other feed
grains is minor; and sorghum production is negligible.
While less acreage is devoted to field crops other than grain and
animal feed, they are of more consequence to the U.S. economy and nutrient
balance than either wheat or feeds. The Worthwest produces about a third
of the nation's dry beans, dry peas and lentils. The first is produced
under irrigation, with production concentrated in the Twin Falls area.
Dry peas and lentils are the principal non-grain product produced in the
absence of irrigation. Production is centered in the Palouse area and the
Lewiston-Clarkston area of Worthwest Idaho/Southeast Washington, and is
principally for export. The Worthwest also produces almost half of the
nation's potatoes, a sixth of its sugar beets, a fifth of its sweet corn,
a sixth of its dry onions, all under irrigation, as well as almost half of
the nation's field and grass seeds, a good share of it in the Willamette
Valley and without benefit of irrigation.
Both orchard and vegetable products are of large and growing
significance. Apples rank just behind wheat in value of crop sales in
Washington, are not unimportant in Idaho and Oregon. Plums and prunes,
berries — particularly caneberries, but including cranberries and
strawberries — cherries, and pears are grown in significant amount.
Green peas, asparagus, and snap beans are the major vegetable crops other
than sweet corn, with the Worthwest producing a disproportionate share of
all four. It also produces virtually the entire U.S. supply of hops, mint
and filberts.
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Acres
1,179,942
1,016,904
250,291
15,306
361,036
52,297
72,400
11,633
10,751
76,317
48,258
30,002
23,046
32,263
19,896
7,706
26,838
16,599
759
2,589
28,491
15,437
10,530
5,307
18,427
4,826
Rank
1
2
4
18
3
7
6
19
20
5
8
10
13
9
13
22
12
15
25
24
11
16
21
17
14
23
Acres
1,507,775
1,222,726
1,090,811
315,495
87,504
320,019
135,745
8,408
137,902
42,155
23,330
9,541
15,942
6,153
268
3,688
3,104
871
-
250
14
116
4,727
1,232
1,619
888
Rank
1
2
3
5
8
4
7
13
6
9
10
12
11
14
22
16
17
21
23
25
24
15
19
18
20
Acres
2,716,305
724,940
751,963
295,314
60,427
104,738
177,587
145,630
_
28,811
52,305
60,955
23,919
14,920
21,477
28,290
2,526
14,277
29,878
26,728
758
8,055
4,449
2,345
19,057
4,37O
Rank
1
3
2
4
9
7
5
6
—
11
9
8
14
17
15
12
22
18
10
13
24
19
20
23
16
21
Acres
5,404,022
2,964,570
2,093,065
626,115
508,967
477,054
385,732
165,671
148,653
147,283
123,893
100,498
62,907
53,336
41,641
39,684
32,468
31,747
30,637
29,567
29,263
23,608
19,706
8,884
39,103
10,084
Output %
275xl06bu
8.5xl06T
131xl06bu
10.3xl06CWT
IMA
156xlQ6cWT
36.1xl06bu
2.9xl09lbs
3.4xl06T
9.8xl06bu
IMA
IMA
IMA
4.0xl06lbs
763xl06lbs
76xl06lbs
IMA
180.8xl06lb
IMA
276xl06lbs
38.8xl06lbs
IMA
IMA
49xl06lbs
IMA
IMA
US Totl.
11.6
6.6
28. 1
31.7
43.3*
46.6
0.5
38.7
16.3
2.O
19.3*
35.7*
74.8
53.2
98.4
11.7*
35.8
31.5*
2.5
9.0
17.4*
16.8*
4.9
beans/Peas
Field&Grass
Seeds
Potatoes
Corn
(feed/seed)
Apples
Sugar Beets
Oats
Sweet Corn
Green Peas
IMursery Pdts
Mint
Pears
Hops
Snap Beans
Cherries
Asparagus
Grapes
Walnts/Flbrts
Berries
Dry Onions
Plums&Prunes
Other Vegs
Other Fruits
A variety of other crops that occupy little acreage but are grown under
intense cultivation practices are worthy of note. Over 60,OOO acres of nursery
occur in the region, mostly within metropolitan areas of western Oregon and western
Washington. Most significant of these are Puget Sound bulb farms which produce a
notable portion of the world supply of tulips, daffodils and narcissus. Willamette
Valley rhododendron and azalea farmers are also internationally active. And in
addition to the major fruit and vegetable products, farms in the region grow such
diverse commodities as lima beans, beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage,
melons, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, lettuce, garlic, peppers, pumpkin and
squash, radishes, rhubarb, spinach, tomatoes, turnips, apricots, nectarines, and
peaches.
* based on acreage harvested
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C. Shifting Crop Patterns
Agriculture probably adjusts more readily to market shifts than any
other American industry. Land, the basic productive resource, is, within
climatic and topographic constraints, suitable for production of a variety
of commodities; and — with the exception of living capital such as
orchards, vineyards, and breeding stock — capital tends to be highly
flexible. Thus one year's change in price or demand is inevitably
followed by a change in the next year's planting regimen.
It follows that short term shifts in agricultural land use are
erratic and difficult to interpret. One year's surplus crop may depress
prices and cause a drop in the following year's production that, in turn,
creates shortage, higher subsequent plantings, another surplus. Year to
year adjustments, then, may be deceptive and obscure long term trends.
Over a period of years, however, longer term developments make
themselves obvious. And as a stock of capital is accumulated or reduced
— not merely agricultural capital, but warehousing, transportation, food
processing and marketing infrastructure necessary to secure the servicing
of the ultimate market for a commodity — the persistence of that trend is
reinforced.
The most durable of the agricultural trends being played out in the
Pacific Northwest is the region's emphasis on livestock and animal
products. Herds continue to grow and value of sales to rise, in spite of
the current vicissitudes of producers of animal products.
That tendency is most pronounced in the instance of dairying, where
the Northwest, with little more than three percent of the nation's
population, housed 4.5 percent of its milk cows in 1982. Despite a
virtually flat value of pei—capita consumption of dairy products and
dramatic increases in unit milk production over the last thirty years,
Worthwest dairy herds have continued to expand in numbers and to lead the
nation in rnilk production per animal.
Growth of numbers of beef cattle has stopped in the last decade, as
Americans have reversed a trend as old as the Republic to increase
per-capita consumption of beef. But Worthwest herds have continued to
grow, though more slowly, as the national herd has declined. As a
consequence, the region has increased its share of beef production from
one tenth of the total to one-eighth of the total.
Similarly in the case of sheep, Worthwest herds have declined more
slowly than average, increasing the region's share of the total market.
Mutton has never been a significant component of the American diet; so the
erosion of sheep herds traces to the decline of U.S. textile and clothing
industries and competition from synthetic fibres rather than shifting
dietary preferences. While the quality of Worthwest rangeland may enable
the region to extend its lead in production of sheep and wool in the
future, sheep remain one of the weaker elements in the area's agricultural
economy.
-------
The opposite situation applies in the case of poultry, predominantly
the production of broiler chickens. Americans have increased their
consumption of chicken prodigiously over the last decade, and Northwest
producers have taken advantage of the change in consumption patterns to
not only match but to exceed the general rate of growth. Still a net
importer of poultry in 1978, the Northwest had become self sufficient on
balance by 1982, and may well have added poultry to the long list of
commodities in which it is a net exporter by the appearances of the next
Census of Agriculture.
Table 4
Shift in Pasture and Animal Inventories, 1974-82
Number on Farms
1974
1978
1982
Beef Cattle
Milk Cows
Sheep
Swine
Chickens
Turkeys
Cropland
Pastured, A
Woodland
Pastured, A
Other Range
Pastured, A
Total
Pasture, A
4,308,412 4,220,199 4,377,074
391,226 418,041 487,470
1,206,633 1,019,550 1,046,199
238,929 289,600 264,967
8,402,691 9,831,055 11,135,275
% of U.S. Total
Mean
Ann. Shift 1974 1978 1982
+8,593 10.4 12.3 12.8
21,454
202,453
95,349
+12,031
-20,054
+3,255
+341,573
IMM
3.7
7.9
0.5
2.5
I\IA
4.1
8.3
0.5
2.8
0.6
4.5
8.4
O.5
3.1
O.2
2,377,147 2,061,325 2,232,925
2,427,677 4,073,518 4,122,300
21,964,886 22,486,722 21,252,745
26,769,710 28,981,565 27,607,970
18,028
WM
89,018
I\IM
2.9
WA
I\IA
!\IA
2
8
5
5
.8
.7
.2
.2
3.4
9.5
5.1
5.2
It is the persistent vitality of Northwest livestock farming, together
with steady increase in yields, that has had the largest influence on area
cropping shifts over the last decade. Feed grains — barley, corn, and oats
— occupied 1.1 million more acres in 1982 than in 1974, with barley
accounting for almost 85% of the increase. The bulk of the increase, over
618 million acres, took place on irrigated land.
The shift in acreage devoted to feed grains was greater by more than an
order of magnitude than that experienced by any other crop group. There was
significant increase in acreage of orchards, 66,000 acres or 24%, with
apples and grapes, predominantly in Washington, accounting for most of the
increase. Field seeds, dry peas, lentils, and nursery products also
experienced notable increases in acreage; while filberts and hops — crops
in which the Northwest holds a virtual monopoly — displayed significant
proportional increase, though total acreage involved was slight.
Surprisingly, acreage planted in vegetables dropped sharply. Big gains
in plantings of asparagus and sweet corn and modest increases in a variety
of minor vegetable crops were outweighed by losses in what had been the
region's prime vegetable crops, green peas and snap beans.
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Table 5
Shift in Cropland Harvested, 1974-1982
Cro
Shift in Harvested Acreage
PIMUI Oregon Idaho Wash.
Barley
Corn (grain)
Apples
Nursery Pdts.
Dry Beans, etc.
Oats
Misc. Vegetables
Sweet Corn
Potatoes
Field&Grass Seed
Grapes
Hops
Nuts
Cherries
Pears
Dry Onions
Berries
Plums & Prunes
Other Fruit
Mint
Snap Beans
Sugar Beets
Hay
Green Peas
Wheat
926,795
163,650
56,844
40,625
38,889
28,640
16,926
14,495
13,862
11,322
8,179
8,053
6,324
2,732
2,144
610
-588
-3,882
-6,043
-8,799
-12,182
-15,927
-27,082
-33,594
•276,623
63,258
34,705
4,722
16,977
2,334
24,872
3,182
6,489
-3,314
38,945
IMA
2,150
6,324
-383
-111
576
-755
-3,274
-6,084
-4,150
-12,182
-2,736
35,937
-12,228
-70,177
365,925
22,891
2,409
10,733
-13,602
2,793
-944
-2,305
4,912
-19,902
IMA
I\IA
IMA
IMA
IMA
34
IMA
-608
41
-352
IMA
48,533
-44,829
76
100,110
497,612
106,054
49,713
12,915
50,157
975
14,688
10,311
12,264
-7,721
8,179
5,903
IMA
3,115
2,255
IMA
167
IMA
IMA
-4,297
IMA
-61,724
-18,190
-21,442
-306,556
Shift as Fraction
of 1982 Harvest
.443
.424
.300
.646
.062
.195
.117
.029
.022
.277
.203
.216
.086
.052
.031
.025
.437
.599
. 165
.375
.107
.009
.334
.051
As it has for many years, the area of expanding crops was drawn
primarily from reduction in area devoted to pasture or planted to wheat.
Since herd sizes and wheat harvest increased over the period, higher
yields resulting from more intense agricultural practices obviously offset
the acreage tradeoff, to result in a significant increase in overall
production of food.
In addition to crop shifts made possible by productivity
improvements, there were four significant instances of reductions in
plantings that were caused by altered demand. The U&I Co.'s mid-seventies
decision to withdraw from sugar refining eliminated the market for sugar
beets in Washington and portions of eastern Idaho, a consequence of a
general reduction in demand for beet sugar. Similarly, snap beans, green
peas, and mint all experienced radical erosion of demand that was
reflected in nation wide reduction in plantings. Since the Pacific
Northwest is the leading producer of all three commodities, much of the
impact was concentrated in the region.
-------
Aside from the shifting composition of the crop mix produced by the
last decade, the notable feature of the period was its continued adherence
to the post World War II scenario for Worthwest agriculture. Irrigation
continued to advance, and with it the progressive reduction in land
employed in grazing and the culture of wheat. Agricultural specialization
increased, with broad increases in row crops and orchards; but with a
narrowing spectrum of commodities sharing the increase. Consistent with
that general movement, though opposite in its manifestation, there was a
strong underlying expansion in acreage planted in a number of vegetables
that was offset by reductions in demand for the region's principle
vegetable crops.
In short, the agriculture of the Worthwest continues to become more
intensive and irrigation dependent, more specialized in its output, more
dependent on mass national markets produced by food processing and on
foreign trade for its commodity sales. Specialization makes it more
vulnerable than ever before to financial and marketing conditions, makes
the quest for continued productivity essential to the survival of the
individual farm operator.
-------
III. Pesticide Use Characteristics in Northwest Agriculture
A. Comparative Use
Pacific Northwest farmers spent $211.7 million, equal to 3.2% of the
value of their commodity sales, in 1982 to treat 12.2 million acres with
chemicals other than fertilizers or lime. Almost half of all northwest
farms utilized some form of chemical treatment during the year; and the
gross area treated — i.e. including double counting of acreage receiving
more than one form of treatment — was equal to almost 91% of the area of
cropland harvested. Dollars spent for treatment with pesticides by
Northwest farmers accounted for 4.9% of national agricultural outlays for
the purpose; and the area treated comprised 4.4% of the agricultural area
treated in the U.S. (The Northwest provided 4.9% of the nation's
farmland, 4.1% of the cropland harvested, and 5.1% of the value of farm
products sold.)
It would appear that pesticide use in the region conforms generally
to national patterns, but that applications are somewhat higher than
average, based on the relationship between cropland harvested and land
treated "in the U.S. and in the Pacific Northwest. A more detailed
comparison of pesticide usage in agriculture, presented in table 9,
indicates that such is, indeed the case.
Table 9
Comparative Pesticide Use Characteristics, 1982
Pesticide Using Area
US other
than PNW
PI\IW
Idaho
Washington
Outlays for Treatment $(106)
Percent of Farms Treating
Outlay per Farm Treating, $
Outlay per Acre Treated, $
Percent of Farmland Treated with
Insecticides
Nematocides
Disease Controls
Weed Controls
Defoliants & Growth Cntrls
Shift, 1978-1982, percent
Total Acres Treated
Acres treated for Weed Cntrl
Acres treated for othr purps
4,070.5
50.3
3,769
15
211.7
47.8
4,672
17
52.7
51.2
4,158
13
56.7
43.6
3,818
20
102.3
49.3
5,751
19
7.5
0.8
1.1
18.0
0.9
+2.2
+6.9
-5.1
5.3
0.5
2.1
16.6
1.0
+14.9
+20.9
+4.5
6.5
0.7
1.8
18.3
1.3
+18.1
+31.2
+0.4
3.1
0.3
1.7
10.7
0.4
+15.0
+13.4
+18.2
6.6
0.5
2.6
21.4
1.4
+ 12.6
+18.3
+3.0
The values suggest that Northwest farmers are very like their
counterparts elsewhere in the nation in their propensity to employ
pesticides; but that their use per acre is likely to be more intense, that
they are significantly less likely to employ agents against insect pests,
significantly more likely to use herbicides, and that their use of both
insecticides and herbicides is increasing more rapidly than use elsewhere.
-------
It is noteworthy that internal differences — i.e. the distinction between
level of pesticide use in Oregon and the other two Worthwest States — are
greater than the difference between use in the Worthwest and the rest of
the nation. Even allowing for the intermittence of pest problems, the
fact supports the hypothesis that agricultural use of pesticides is
modified, if not governed, by locational circumstances and agricultural
specialization.
To test that hypothesis, and to derive some measure of the nature of
locational aspects of pesticide use in the Northwest, the area has been
divided for analytical purposes into ten agricultural districts. Six of
the ten represent large areas, groups of counties considered together
because of common topographic and climatic conditions. Four smaller areas
were abstracted from the physically homogenous sets on the basis of the
relative intensity of their agriculture.
The ten areas are these:
•C& V
1) A Qrfstal Strip is composed of twenty-one of the twenty—two Oregon J
and Washington counties that border the Pacific Ocean or Puget Sound.
(Lane County, Oregon is included among Willamette Valley rather than
Coastal counties.) The area is mountainous rain forest, with its northern
portion heavily urbanized and industrialized, and is largely unsuited to
general farming. Only 7.2% of its 18 million acres is farmland; and only
26.8% of its farmland is harvested. Dairying, the predominant
agricultural activity, provides 50.2% of the value of gross farm income,
sales of other livestock products 27.9%. A limited number of specialty
farms, mostly in the Puget Sound area, obtain significant revenues from
nursery, orchard and vegetable sales.
2) The Willamette Valley consists of nine Oregon counties that
occupy the sloping plain between the Coast and Cascade mountain ranges
that is drained by the Willamette River. It is the only sizeable
Worthwest agricultural area with sufficient summer precipitation to
sustain general agriculture. Although its borderlands are mountainous and
forested, and its 8.4 million acres contain all three of Oregon's
metropolitan areas, 21.5% of the land area is farmland and 53% of the
farmland is harvested. The agriculture is the Northwest's most diverse
and among its most intense, with relatively small farms producing a
balanced commodity mix: 33% of sales are of fruit and specialty crops,
19.8% are of livestock products, 12.5% of dairy products, 13.2% hay and
seeds, 11.5% vegetables, and 9.8% grains.
3) The Eastern Slopes of the Cascades contain fifteen Washington and
Oregon counties, exclusive of Yakima County which is categorized
separately. The area is semi-arid. Its mountainous western portion is
mostly forest that becomes progressively more sparse as the land drops to
the high Columbia Plateau. Area is 24.9 million acres, 23.9% of it
farmland. Only 15.1% of the farmland is harvested, 9.8% is irrigated.
Grazing and production of meat animals dominate land use, with range and
pasture taking up 74.9% of farmland. But livestock products sales account
for only 32.5% of farm revenues and dairying 7.5%. Orchards and — less
significant — row crops, both almost entirely irrigated, provide 42.1% of
total farm sales.
-------
4) Yakima County, with only 2.7 million acres, produces nearly as
much farm revenue as all of the rest of the Cascades region. Exactly
five—eighths of the land area is included in farms; 16.4% of the farmland
is cropland, 16.2% of the farmland is irrigated. The commodity mix is
similar to that of the rest of the Cascades region, though orchards —
predominantly apples — and row crops, including hops, account for a
greater share of sales, 52.1%. Livestock products bring 31.2% of sales,
dairy products 6.2%.
5) The Columbia Plateau, high, flat, and arid, includes both natural
grasslands capable of supporting low intensity grain plantings or grazing
and true desert totally unsuited for agriculture. The area covers 33.6
million acres, 50.9% of it classified as farmland. But 18.5% of that
farmland is idle. Cropland amounts to 29.4% of farmland; and where
irrigation water can be supplied, the land is extremely productive. Ten
percent of the farmland is irrigated, almost a quarter of the total
irrigation occurring in Grant County Washington. Grains, predominantly
wheat, produce 41.4% of gross farm income, livestock 23.8%. Row crops,
particularly potatoes produced under irrigation in Grant County and
scattered other locations, bring 20.6% of gross farm income.
6) Walla Walla County can be distinguished from the rest of the
Columbia Plateau on the basis of the intensity of its agriculture, an
intensity that is a compound of two circumstances. Wo less than 93.6% of
the county's total area is farmland; and the Walla Walla, Touchet, Snake
and Columbia Rivers make it possible to irrigate 12.8% of that farmland.
Thus, though the county adheres to the wheat/cattle pattern of agriculture
that characterizes most of eastern Washington and Oregon — they account,
respectively, for 29.3% and 52% of farm sales — substantial revenues are
also derived from vegetables and from row crops and fruits, which together
provide 11% of farm sales and support a sizeable local food processing
industry.
7) The Palouse hills, a region composed of four Washington and three
Idaho counties, may be Worth America's most intensely cultivated and
productive wheatland. Eighty percent of the area's 4.3 million acres is
included in farms; and 47.7% of the farmland is harvested, though only
3.3% is irrigated. Grains, mostly wheat, produce 82.4% of farm revenues,
cattle 8.9%.
8) The Mountain Country of Worthwest Washington and Worthern Idaho
is limited by topography to sparse, small scale agriculture. Only 15.8%
of its 26.6 million acres is considered to be farmland. The bulk of that,
58.7%, is devoted to grazing. Cropland, principally hay, occupies another
23.5% of the farmland. Livestock produce 56.1% of revenues, meat animals
bringing 44%, dairy products the reminder. Wheat and other grains account
for another 29.4% of sales.
9) The largest of the Worthwest's agriculture regions, both in terms
of area and of farm income produced, is the Snake Basin. Its 36.8 million
acres is 35.1% farmland, and 29.5% of the farmland is cropland, 23.6% of
it is irrigated. As with the Columbia Plateau, which is almost as large
in area and includes considerably more farmland, cattle and grains are the
largest revenue producers, accounting respectively for 37.5% and 24.3% of
-------
gross farm income. But the farm economy of the Snake Basin is, because of
the high prevalence of irrigation, more diversified. Row crops, notably
potatoes, sugar beets, and dry beans produce 21.6% of farm income,
dairying 9.6%, hay and seeds 5.0%.
10) The Boise Basin includes three Idaho counties whose total area
is only 3.0 million acres, 31.2% of which is farmland. Yet value of the
area's agricultural output, which is based on extensive irrigation, rivals
that of the Yakima and far exceeds the Palouse. Distribution of farmland
is similar to that of the larger Snake Basin area that contains the Boise,
with 41.5% of the farmland occupied by cropland and 44.0% of the farmland
irrigated. Cattle are the prime revenue source, accounting for 64.5% of
farm income, with row crops providing another 19.7%, grain 10.4% and dairy
products 10.3%.
Table 10
Agricultural Sub-regions of the Pacific Worthwest
1000 Acres
Value of Sales
Percent Percent
Area Farmland Farmland $1000's of Total
Coastal Counties
Willamette Basin
Cascades Counties
Yakima Basin
Columbia Plateau
Walla Walla Basin
Palouse Counties
Mountain Counties
Snake Basin
Boise Basin
Total
Average
17,956
8,450
24,940
2,743
33,640
807
4,324
26,638
36,863
3,012
1,295
1,820
5,962
1,715
17,098
755
3,458
4,216
12,936
941
7.2
21.5
23.9
62.5
50.8
93.6
80.0
15.8
35.1
31.2
652,198
650,650
591,047
467,733
1,655,852
230,117
313,746
164,346
1,758,451
430,425
9.4
9.4
8.6
6.8
24.0
3.3
4.5
2.4
25.4
6.2
159,373 50,196
6,914,565
31.5
Per Acre
Farmland
$504
$358
$ 99
$273
$ 97
$305
$ 91
$ 39
$136
$458
$138
The propensity to employ pesticides has been expressed quantitatively
for each of these agricultural districts (as for the three Worthwest
states and the U.S. excluding the Worthwest) as the fraction of total
farmland treated with each of the five pesticide classes distinguished by
the Census of Agriculture. The sum of the five categorical values may be
construed to measure overall propensity to employ pesticides. Values are
presented, ranked according to overall propensity to employ pesticides, in
table 11.
(Clearly, there are large deficiencies in the measure. It conveys
neither the frequency of treatment nor the amount of chemical agents
applied; and it treats as equivalents compounds of vastly different
nature. But as a first approximation of relative intensity of pesticide
use in separate agricultural regions, the measurement would seem to be
superior to hypothesizing on the basis of crop type and pesticide
registrations, the technique generally applied to this time.)
-------
Table 11
Relative Propensity
of Agricultural Regions to Employ Pesticides
Acres Treated/Acres of Farmland
Area
Walla Walla
Willamette
Palouse
Boise
Yakima
Washington
Idaho
Columbia
Plateau
U.S.
excl. PWW
Snake
Coast-Puget
Oregon
Cascades
Mountainous
Sum Insectcde
.6398
.5573
.5247
.4276
.3489
.3255
.2855
.2846
.2834
.2231
.2007
.1626
.1086
.0850
.1384
.1112
.1045
.1105
.0814
.0657
.0653
.0502
.0749
.0515
.0549
.0310
.027
.0097
Wematocde
.0055
.0123
.0038
.0210
.0021
.0050
.0065
.0045
.0078
.0053
.0035
.0031
.0023
.0001
Disease Ctl
.0901
.0832
.0424
.0467
.0269
.0262
.0181
.0198
.0114
.0122
.0128
.0174
.0115
.0039
Weed Ctl Defoliants etc
.3720
.3403
.3681
.2255
.2104
.2143
.1825
.2017
.1799
.1422
.1231
.1067
.0605
.0694
.0338
.0103
.0059
.0239
.0281
.0143
.0131
.0084
.0094
.0119
.0064
.0044
.0073
.0019
B. Factors Governing Pesticide Use
In the short run the factors that determine pesticide use are largely
physical and biological: virulence and frequency of pest episodes,
climatic mediation, efficacy of pesticides. In the longer run, however,
price and technology may be expected to pose a more regular pattern based
on agricultural specialization and cultural practices. Thus current
agricultural practices in the Pacific Northwest may be considered to
represent an equilibrium whose elements — including the use of pesticides
— should remain fairly static until some technological or demand shift
disturbs it.
If that is so, recognition of the general characteristics governing
pesticide use in the region should be useful in implementing existing
regulatory programs, and in detecting shifts in agricultural practices
that may influence future program alterations.
The most obvious of the variables that affect propensity to employ
pesticides is the relative intensity of agriculture. It is axiomatic that
more intense cultural practices involve greater use of pesticides, in that
use of pesticides is one of the elements that define agriculture
intensity. But there is no reason to assume either that a high propensity
to employ pesticides is an invariable aspect of intensive agriculture, or
that significant differences of degree in propensity to employ pesticides
are not associated with separate aspects of intensity.
-------
To test the correspondence between pesticide use and other measures
of agricultural intensity, the linear correlation between propensity to
employ pesticides and three other measures — sales per acre of farmland,
percent of farmland irrigated, percent of farmland harvested — has been
derived for a set composed of the ten agricultural sub regions, the three
Northwest states, and the U.S. exclusive of the Pacific Northwest.
Results are presented in table 12.
Table 12
Measures of Agricultural Intensity vs. Propensity to Employ Pesticides
Propensity to Employ
Insecticides
IMematocides
Disease Controls
Weed Controls
Sales per Acre
intrcpt slpe r
.0414 .0001 .55
.0016 .00002 .58
.0126 .0001 .46
.1581 .0002 .29
Percent Irrigated
intrcpt slpe r
Percent Cropland
intrcpt slpe r
0561
0008
0245
1963
0068
.0010 .28
.0004 .74
.0004 .16
.0002 .26
.0004 .48
0097
0016
0267
0313
0053
.0025
.0002
.0018
.0071
.0053
.83
.55
.81
.87
.31
Defoliants & Growth Ctls .0065 .00003 .47
The correlations are instructive, and tend to bear out the hypothesis that
pesticide use is an invariable aspect of intensive agriculture.
Correlation is positive in each case, though the most compelling
coefficients of correlation and steepest slopes occur in the relationship
between pesticides and use of farmlands as cropland. (An exception is
propensity to employ nematocides, where irrigation has the strongest
association, presumably a consequence of soil moisture.) The inference,
then, is that the propensity to employ pesticides is substantially
stronger in growing crops for harvest than in producing animal products.
That evidence is strengthened by correlation of pesticide use with
source of farm income. When animal products sales as a percentage of
total farm sales are correlated with pesticide usage, modestly negative
correlations with dairying occur for all five pesticide categories. In
the case of other livestock products, correlations with ail classes cf
pesticide use other than weed control are slightly positive, but the
combination of animal feeding with intense agriculture in the Walla Walla,
Boise and Yakima farm districts suggests that the positive correlation may
be coincidental, the consequence of an association of intense farming with
large proportional animal sales rather direct consequence of livestock
activities. (Table 13)
Table 13
Relative Sales of Livestock Products vs. Propensity to Employ Pesticides
Propensity to Employ
Insecticides
Nematocides
Disease Controls
Weed Controls
Defoliants & Growth Ctls
Dairy Products
Intercept Slope r
Other Livestock Products
Intercept Slope r
.0775
.0060
.0373
.235
.0152
0007
00001
0006
0031
0002
-.22
-.03
-.28
-.36
-.27
.0644
.0015
.0279
.265
-.0005
.0002
.0001
.0001
.0019
.0007
.05
.31
.03
-.23
.24
-------
That factor of possible coincidence makes it risky to attempt to
pursue the propensity to employ pesticides through correlations with
particular crops. For the most part, the agriculture of the Pacific
Northwest is so diversified that it is not possible to associate a
particular practice with a given crop in the absence of detailed
information. There are simply too many potentially affective variables to
assign a reasonable association to any particular one.
But if the propensity to employ pesticides cannot be determined for
specific crops, there remains the possibility of separating the
propensities associated with major crop groups, that is, detecting the
effect of agriculture specialization on the propensity to employ
pesticides.
To sharpen distinctions between crop groups, given the overall
environment of crop diversity, the measure chosen to represent
specialization is dollar value of crop group sales per acre of total
cropland harvested. Four crop groups are distinguished: grains, hay and
seeds, vegetables, and the combination of row crops, orchards, berries and
specialty crops. The dollars per acre of cropland standard allows sharp
delineation of comparative specialization, as table 14 demonstrates.
Table 14
Comparative Specialization, Sales Dollars per Acre of
Total Harvested Cropland
Agricultural Region
Maila Walla
Willamette
Palouse
Boise
Yakima
Washington
Idaho
Columbia Plateau
U.S., excluding PWW
Snake
Coast-Puget
Oregon
Cascades
Mountainous
Grain
172.05
65.95
156.55
115.05
87.15
129.90
113.50
136.35
111.50
112.10
10.15
86.20
58.55
48.70
Dollarsper ftcre. Crop Group
Hay & Seeds Vegetables Other
23.70
89.35
3.65
49.15
20.95
19.65
24.25
21.05
6.20
23.05
18.45
47.15
33.40
17.75
30.80
77.25
3.00
23.40
65.70
20.35
5.75
9.25
12.50
8.20
86.65
30.80
6.60
.05
34.05
222.35
.85
217.05
869.40
154.95
87.85
67.70
56.75
99.40
276.45
118.85
276.80
4.05
Results of the regression calculations are presented in table 15.
-------
Table 15
Crop Group Sales per Cropland Acre vs. Propensity to Employ Pesticides
Propensity
to Employ
Grains
Hay, Seeds
slpe r
Vegetables
inept slpe
Other
slpe
Insecticides
Wematoeides
Disease Cntrols .0053 .0002 .41 .0124 .0006 .51 .0213 .0003 .35 .0308 neg -.03
Weed Controls
Defoliants &
Growth Cntrols
.0235 .0005 .56 .0598 .0003 .21 .0596 .0004 .29 .0680 pos .06
.0037 .00002.19 .0023 .0001 .53 .0053 .00002.13 .0061 neg -.05
.0512 .0015 .64 .1791 .0007 .16 .1819 .0007 .19 .2069 neg -.08
.0029 .0001 .46 .0128 neg 0 .0108 .0001 .23 .0096 .00002.42
Clearly, the values demand further interpretation. The relationship
between grain sales and weed controls is unequivocal. There is a strong
positive correlation between the variables; and the upward slope of
propensity to employ weed controls is twice or more greater for grains
than for the other three crop groups. Since weed controls are far and
away the most broadly employed pesticide group, accounting for 65% of
total acres receiving pesticide treatment in the Northwest in 1982, the
association is unquestionably significant. But in other cases,
relationships are insufficiently outlined to draw dependable conclusions.
At best, they seem to indicate that as income per acre for any crop group
increases, that increase is accompanied by an increase in treatment by
pesticides, a simple restatement of the intensity relationship.
A sharper definition of the relationship between the various classes
of pesticides and the several crop groups can be obtained by exaggerating
both variables — that is, by applying the demonstrated correlation
between percent of farmland employed as cropland and propensity to employ
pesticides. To conduct the exercise, acres treated with each class of
pesticide have been expressed as a fraction of cropland, eliminating that
major portion of farmland held idle or employed for grazing. Results are
presented in table 16.
Table 16
Acres Treated by Pesticide Classes as a Fraction of Cropland
Fraction of Cropland Harvested
Insecticides
Disease Controls
Weed Controls
Defoliants, etc
Yakima
Walla Walla
Boise
(U.S.
Palouse
Willamette
Coast
Cascades
Snake
Columbia PL
Mountains
.4977
.2671
.2662
.2247)
.2189
.2098
.2046
.1788
.1750
.1706
.0412
Walla Walla
Yakima
Willamette
Boise
Palouse
Cascades
Columbia PL
Coast
Snake
(U.S.
Mountains
.1739
.1646
.1571
.1126
.0888
.0764
.0674
.0478
.0414
.0342)
.0164
Palouse
Walla Walla
Columbia PL
Willamette
Boise
(U.S.
Yakima
Snake
Coast
Cascades
Mountains
.7710
.7181
.6856
.6422
.5434
.5399)
.4988
.4821
.4584
.4014
.2950
Yakima
Walla Walla
Boise
Cascades
Snake
Columbia PL
(U.S.
Coast
Willamette
Palouse
Mountains
.1715
.0653
.0576
.0486
.0402
.0287
.0282)
.0238
.0195
.0124
.0082
-------
The procedure causes a distinct reshuffling of the ranking of the
agricultural sub-region's use of the various categories of pesticides, and
sharply narrows the range of inter-regional variations in pesticide use.
Clearly the Northwest's system of agriculture is one that features areas
of farming intensity (made possible mainly by irrigation) that are
separated by broad expanses of either range or wheatland. Within those
pockets of intensity, ovei—all propensity to employ pesticides would seem
to be similar. It is noteworthy, too, that with the exception of
insecticides, most Worthwest farming areas exceed the national average in
terms of percent of cropland treated with major categories of pesticides.
Correlation of the values with dollar value of output in major crop
categories gives the results presented in table 17.
Table 17
Crop Group Sales per Cropland Acre vs.
Percent of Cropland Treated by Pesticide Class
Insecticides
Crop Group
Disease Controls
jmcjjt slpe r
Weed Controls
inept slpe
Defoliants, etc
inept slpe r
Dairy
Livestock
Grains
Hay & Seeds
Vegetables
Other Crops
22.17
13.37
17.93
22.01
17.04
14.62
.001
.034
.045
.001
.169
.037
.02
.62
.20
.02
.49
.83
10.10
7.22
5.42
6.42
7.13
7.52
-.0046 •
.0085
.042
.1015
.075
.0094
-.24
.32
.39
.43
.45
.44
56.76
59.02
33.18
53.78
54.57
57.88
-.0131
-.0155
.2262
.0393
.0125
-.0141
-.24 4.98
-.21 1.22
.77 3.90
.06 5.23
.03 3.37
-.24 1.42
-.0016
.0135
.0089
-.0156
.0446
.0162
-.10
.60
.10
-.08
.31
.87
The values, taken together with the data from which they were
developed, produce a fairly firm set of findings.
Both insecticides and the defoliant/growth control category of
pesticides are strongly associated with orchards and row crops. The
apparent correlation of the two pesticide groups with animal products
other than dairying may safely be dismissed as an accident of association
— highest values of animal sales per acre of cropland occur in cattle
feeding agricultural regions where orchards and row crops predominate
(e.g. Boise, Yakima).
While weed controls are the most prevalent of pesticides, that
breadth of use would appear to be a consequence of the ubiquity of grains
in Worthwest agriculture. Use of weed controls has a low coefficient of
correlation with the cropping of hay, seeds, and vegetables, a negative
correlation with animal culture, orchards, and row crops.
Employment of disease controls would appear to be associated with
agricultural intensity rather than any particular crop group. The
modestly positive correlation with all commodity groups but dairying is
suggestive of a situation in which applications are based on need, grower
awareness, and financial capability rather than specific susceptibility or
common practice associated with given groups of crops.
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