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IPM in Developing Countries: Only a Dream Without Proper Policy?
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"Experiences in developing countries have shown that agricultural
innovations meet with the desired level of acceptance once they lead
to a rise in gross margin of around 30 percent. Increases of this mag-
nitude in the gross margin are achieved only seldom with the introduc-
tion of IPM.
In the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, pesticide expenditure accounts for
less than 5 percent of the gross margin for up to 50 percent of the
fruit farmers, while for another 40 percent, pesticide expenditure is
only between 5 and 20 percent of their gross margin. This is due to
the low costs of pesticides and the relatively high gross margins.
To introduce IPM in high value fruit crops is even more challeng-
ing compared to rice, for instance. Unless governments support IPM
through developing policies on limiting importation of highly toxic
chemicals, and encouraging import and use of selective chemical pest-
icides and biopesticides, any long-term effort to develop and gain
acceptance of an IPM program for crops such as fruit is bound to
fail."
--P. Van Mele, Vietnamese-Belgian IPM in Fruit Production Project
Cantho University, Can Tho, VIETNAM. E-mail: <paul@hcm.vnn.vn>.
Fax: 84-71-830-814. Phone: 84-71-832-290.
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