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Sustainability and On-Farm Externalities in Central America: A Critical Review and Synthesis of the Literature

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716	Sustainability and On-Farm Externalities in Central America: A Critical Review and Synthesis of the Literature	- Larson, Bruce - Pérez, José Manuel
This paper aims to interpret empirical evidence in existing literature on environmental and health impacts of agricultural production in Central America . The paper examines those impacts that occur on existing commercialized, agricultural lands, commonly known as externalities at the intensive margin. Concerns center on use of chemicals (mainly pesticides), soil erosion and soil degradation. The links among erosion, soil attributes, degradation, and productivity remain poorly understood and documented, despite years of concern about soil erosion. The literature suggests that soil erosion at the intensive margin does not pose a serious threat to farm productivity. There is severe erosion in Central America, but it is not a significant constraint on future agricultural growth on commercial lands. Farmers make appropriate soil conservation efforts as rational investment and production decisions. The existing literature on health effects of pesticide use remains incomplete, politically sensitive in some places, and difficult to generalize to a national or regional level. The estimated direct costs of just acute pesticide poisonings in Central America are valued annually at 2.5% of total agricultural GDP (about $190 in 1995). Of this total cost, almost 50% is due to suicide-related intentional deaths, 25% is due to accidental deaths, and about 25% is due to non-fatal poisonings.
May, 1999	52 Pages

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