The effects of government policy in rich countries
Section E
In poor countries, governments aggravate other sorts of damage. Subsidies for pesticides and
artificial fertilisers encourage farmers to use greater quantities than are needed to get the
highest economic crop yield. A study by the International Rice Research Institute of pesticide
use by farmers in South East Asia found that, with pest-resistant varieties of rice, even
moderate applications of pesticide frequently cost farmers more than they saved. Such waste
puts farmers on a chemical treadmill: bugs and weeds become resistant to poisons, so next
year's poisons must be more lethal. One cost is to human health. Every year some 10,000
people die from pesticide poisoning, almost all of them in the developing countries, and another
400,000 become seriously ill. As for artificial fertilisers, their use world-wide increased by 40 per
cent per unit of farmed land between the mid 1970s and late 1980s, mostly in the developing
countries. Overuse of fertilisers may cause farmers to stop rotating crops or leaving their land
fallow. That, in turn, may make soil erosion worse.