José Falck-Zepeda
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, DC
Arie Sanders, Carlos Rogelio Trabanino, and Rolando Batallas-Huacon
Panamerican Agricultural School (Zamorano University), Honduras
Insect-resistant/herbicide-tolerant (Bt/RR) maize has been approved for commercialization in Honduras, and has been sold commercially since 2006. In 2007-2008, we conducted a survey of 113 farmers in the country, including 67 Bt/RR adopters and 46 conventional maize users. We also conducted agronomic, small- and large-plot experiments in situ and one crop-cycle planting with a Farmer Field School. Adopters were few and difficult to locate in a random sampling framework. We applied a battery of diagnostic and estimation methods to address these problems of outliers and endogeneity. Results based on robust and instrumental variables regression of survey data suggest that in the presence of target insects, producers may observe reduced pest damage and/or a decrease in pesticide applications. Results are quite sensitive to the presence of outliers. Nevertheless, results from the agronomic, in situ, and Farmer Field School tend to support the conclusions from our survey analysis.
Key words: Honduras, maize, endogeneity, insect resistance, herbicide tolerance, instrumental variables, robust regression.