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2 Farmers viewpoints and ex ante impact assessment
In the first contacts with farmers, it rapidly became apparent that there was a gulf between farmers’ concerns and donor concerns, which can be equated with the concerns of poor farmers in developing countries compared with the concerns of rich tax payers in developed countries. The former are concerned with feeding their family at any cost; the latter are concerned about environmental and other issues. Locusts need to be tackled far from farmers’ fields; an individual farmer can do little to protect him or herself against a swarm of locusts. These migratory pests are therefore best dealt with as public rather than private pests. The project had originally hoped to develop something cheaper than chemical pesticides, produced locally to stimulate economy, but nothing as effective as the Metarhizium was found. Realistically, main impact is on reduced environmental contamination. Components of environmental contamination are food-stuffs, medical costs from application, livestock poisoning, disposal costs (Houndekoun et al., 1999).