FE475 The Economics of Silicon Applications on Rice and Sugarcane in Florida 1 José Alvarez, Lawrence E. Datnoff, and George H. Snyder 2 1. This is EDIS document FE475, a publication of the Department of Food and Resource Economics, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, UF/IFAS, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. Published May 2004. Reviewed August 2009.This publication is also part of the Florida Sugarcane Handbook, an electronic publication of the Department of Agronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. For more information, contact the editor of the Sugarcane Handbook, Ronald W. Rice (rwr@ufl.edu). Please visit the EDIS Web site at http://EDIS.ifas.ufl.edu. 2. José Alvarez, Professor, Department of Food and Resource Economics; Lawrence E. Datnoff, Professor and Associate Center Director, Department of Plant Pathology; and George H. Snyder, Distinguished Professor, Department of Soil and Water Science, Everglades Research and Education Center, Belle Glade, FL, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, UF/IFAS, University of Florida. The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean Introduction Since the mid-1970s, silicon applications, first to sugarcane and later to rice-sugarcane rotations, have been used increasingly in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) in Florida. Publications with economic analyses have complemented a growing literature in the physical and biological sciences. Because of the expenses involved in this cultural practice, questions about the profitability of the decision have always been present. The first economic analysis of silicon (calcium silicate slag) applied to sugarcane in the EAA showed positive returns on investment (Alvarez and Gascho, 1979). After a rice industry was established in the EAA in 1977 and experiments proved that rice was responsive to silicon, the question of when to apply the silicon was investigated. Of the three potential times silicon can be applied (before rice, before sugarcane, or before rice-sugarcane rotation), the highest net returns were achieved when silicon was applied before planting rice in rice-sugarcane rotations (Alvarez, et al., 1988). Using both Florida and U.S. data, more analyses were conducted to investigate the economic potential of silicon for integrated management and sustainable rice and sugarcane production (Alvarez and Datnoff, 2001a; Alvarez and Datnoff, 2001b). Benefits from silicon applications to both crops include positive impacts on yields, better disease and insect management, savings in fungicide and insecticide costs from fewer applications, and reductions in fertilizer applications. Additional benefits, which were different for rice and sugarcane, were also identified. The purpose of this document is to summarize previous economic information on silicon applications to rice and sugarcane in the EAA and to make this information available through EDIS. These summaries will be provided for monocultures of rice and sugarcane and for rice-sugarcane rotation production. Growers overwhelmingly use silicon applications for rice-sugarcane rotations in Florida.