The Value of plant disease early-warning systems
Subtitle: a case study of USDA's soybean rust coordinated framework
By: Michael J. Roberts, David Schimmelpfennig, Elizabeth Ashley, and Michael Livingston, with contributions by Mark Ash and Utpal Vasavada.
Contributors: United States. Dept. of Agriculture. Economic Research Service.
Series: Economic research report -- no.18.; Economic research report (United States. Dept. of Agriculture. Economic Research Service) -- no.18.
Publisher: USDA Economic Research Service
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Washington, D.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 38
Subjects: Soybean rust disease -- Epidemiology; Soybean -- Diseases and pests -- Monitoring
Notes: "April 2006"

Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: From the abstract: "Early-warning systems for plant diseases are valuable when the systems provide timely forecasts that farmers can use to inform their pest management decisions. To evaluate the value of the systems, this study examines USDA's coordinated framework for soybean rust surveillance, reporting, prediction, and management, which was developed before the 2005 growing season. The framework's linchpin is a website that provides real-time, county-level information on the spread of the disease.  The study finds that the framework's information is valuable to farmers even in a year with a low rust infection like that of 2005. We estimate that the information provided by the framework increased U.S. soybean producers' profits by a total of $11-$299 million in 2005, or between 16 cents and $4.12 per acre, depending on the quality of information and other factors. The reported cost of the framework was between $2.6 million and almost $5 million in 2005." (p.i); title: "Keywords: Soybean rust; title: Farmer's perceptions; title: Forecast accuracy; title: Updating beliefs; title: Value of information; title: Real-time disease location; title: Plant disease management; title: Risk management."