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PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK NORTH AMERICA UPDATES SERVICE
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Farmer First: Field Schools Key to IPM Success
August 16, 1994
The techniques of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) have been
applied since the 1960s, but many IPM programs have failed to
take root with farmers, in spite of demonstrations that
natural enemies effectively control many insect pests.
Experience in many countries demonstrates that IPM training
is not effective when simply packaged as part of a top-down
extension message. In contrast, a project developing Farmer
Field Schools in South and Southeast Asia has pioneered
successful methods of training rice farmers in the field to
understand and manage the plant-pest ecology in their fields
as the basis of their IPM decisions.
The Farmer Field Schools project is a joint United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization and government cooperative
program that has been operating since 1980 in Bangladesh,
India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and
Thailand, and since 1987 in China and Vietnam. Rice growing
in Asia employs more than 200 million families, and 1992
production was estimated at 480 million tons, or 91% of the
world crop. By March 1993, approximately 18,000 extension
agents and over 500,000 farmers had been trained as part of
the program.
Through the participatory approach of Farmer Field Schools,
the project trains farmers to understand the role of natural
insect pest enemies in the rice ecosystem. As a direct
result, Asian rice farmers have saved an average of US$10 per
hectare per season, and participating countries have achieved
a 50% reduction, estimated at US$325 million per year. As
most governments still subsidize pesticide purchases, this
reduction amounts to a significant saving and questions the
need for subsidies.
The health and environmental benefits associated with IPM as
practiced by these farmers are also considerable. Farmers
become more aware of the hazards of handling and using
pesticides, and more critical of those they select, because
of potential effects on the local ecosystem.
Multinational agrochemical companies still encourage farmers
to spray more than is necessary. Chemical companies routinely
run intensive radio and billboard advertising campaigns,
promoting their products as "IPM compatible" and giving away
t-shirts, caps, and pens with corporate logos. Paul Teng, a
plant pathologist at the International Rice Research
Institute, pointed out that "the companies are usually better
organized and have more money to get their message across
than government services," undercutting the effectiveness of
IPM training.
Nonetheless, the field training programs are a powerful
farmer-oriented tool. Although pesticides continue to be
advertised and used, farmers increasingly discriminate
whether, when and how they may be needed. Their knowledge of
natural enemies, economic thresholds of pest damage and
enhanced safety awareness give them the confidence to base
crop-management decisions on their own knowledge. Farmers
trained in these methods will not automatically become part
of a pesticide treadmill, and often seek to apply their
positive experiences with rice IPM to other crops.
Sources: FAO, Intercountry Programme for the Development and
Application of Integrated Pest Control in Rice in South and
South-East Asia, Phase I and II, Terminal Report, Rome, 1994;
New Scientist, May 7, 1994; Pesticides News, June 1994.
Contact: Barbara Dinham, The Pesticides Trust, Eurolink
Business Centre, 49 Effra Road, London SW2 1BZ, United
Kingdom; phone (44-71) 274 8895; fax (44-71) 274 9084; email
pesttrust@gn.apc.org.
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The Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS) is a
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