Economic Evaluation of Integrated Pest Management Technology for Control of Mango Fruit Flies in Embu County, Kenya

Mango is the third most important fruit in Kenya in terms of area and total production. Nutritionally, mango fruit is important for vitamins and mineral provision in the daily diet of Kenyans. As an export crop, mango earns the country foreign exchange, acts as source of food and household income especially for resource poor farmers, contributing to poverty alleviation and achievement of Millennium Development Goal number one. However, mango production and marketing is constrained by several factors, among which pests and disease infestation is major. Among the pests, mango fruit fly present a real challenge to producers and exporters due to losses incurred at the farm level and infested mango rejections at export points. To reduce losses, cost of production and increase the profit at producer level, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) developed and implemented an Integrated Pest Management fruit fly control package (IPMFFCP) in Embu County, Kenya. The impact of this intervention, however, had not been evaluated. This study therefore evaluated the impact of this intervention on magnitude of mango rejection due to fruit fly damage, insecticide expenditure and net income from mango production. The study also established households’ perception of the effect of the intervention on human health. The study used survey research design in which a structured questionnaire was administered to 257 randomly selected IPMFFCP participants and non participants from the intervention and control areas. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression analysis and Difference-in-difference (DD) method were used to assess the impact of the IPMFFCP on magnitude of mango rejection and insecticide expenditure. Two Stage Least Square (2SLS) analysis and DD were used to evaluate the impact of IPMFFCP on net income from mango production. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the household perception of the effect of IPMFFCP on health. The results indicated that on average IPMFFCP participants had approximately 54.5 percent reduction in magnitude of mango rejection than the non participants. The participants spent approximately 46.3 percent less on insecticide per acre than the non participants and on average received approximately 22.4 percent more net income than the non participants. Results also showed that 78 percent of households perceived the intervention improved human health. The results imply that IPMFFCP participants are better off in terms of magnitude of mango rejection and insecticide expenditure reduction and net income from mango production increment. The study recommends expansion of IPMFFCP intervention to the entire mango growing area in Embu County to improve the farmers’ livelihood through the increased profitability.