Files
Abstract
Estimates of aggregate disease costs can be used for assigning research resources or to
evaluate control measures. Most diseases cause production losses, but others affect quality
and marketability. Seed-borne diseases also cause problems for the seed production and
distribution industry. The aim in this paper is to examine issues relating to the economic
impact of a quality-reducing, seed-borne disease, and to highlight differences compared to
non-seed-borne diseases affecting yield only.
Economic evaluation of quality-reducing, seed-borne diseases needs to incorporate impacts
of trading restrictions such as quarantines or embargoes imposed by purchasers. The costs
of measures taken to control diseases also represent part of the economic impact of the
disease. Full economic costs of a disease include the direct (yield and quality) costs and
costs of the control measures. The costs of Kamal bunt of wheat in Mexico were found to
include many control costs that have often been overlooked.
The optimal amount of resources to invest in controlling a disease depends on the likely
annual costs of the disease and of control measures. Before implementing disease control
policies, both the costs and the benefits of the policies need to be considered, taking the
risks of each option into account, to ensure that the policy itself does not impose greater
costs than the uncontrolled disease.