May 12, 1995
IPM Facility Announced
A new Global Integrated Pest Management Facility has been
formed as a joint effort of the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank. A March
1995 World Bank press release notes that the Facility will
fund projects that support low chemical, participatory
approaches to pest management and "help reduce excessive and
costly pesticide use, which poses a threat to both human
health and the environment."
The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Facility's activities
will begin with a set of pilot projects in selected areas
where a pest outbreak has occurred, where pesticides are used
excessively and are not proving effective, and where IPM
based on ecological pest management is likely to produce
immediate, substantial and quantifiable benefits. The first
Facility projects will focus on vegetable production in
Kenya; cotton in Zimbabwe, and control of striga (a parasitic
plant pest of sorghum, millet and other crops) in West
Africa. Other projects under proposal include rice in
Madagascar, vegetables in West Africa, Trinidad and Vietnam,
and cotton in China.
The FAO and the World Bank have each committed US$500,000 to
the Facility's first year budget, and additional support is
anticipated from UNDP and UNEP. The three UN agencies and the
World Bank have been working to establish the Facility for
more than a year in consultation with IPM practitioners and
NGOs. Creation of the Global IPM Facility was strongly
endorsed by 1994 meetings of an inter-agency task force on
IPM as well as the FAO/UNEP IPM Experts Panel. The Facility
is seen as a means of implementing parts of the 1992 UN
Conference on Environment and Development's Agenda 21 calling
for programs that put IPM within reach of farmers through
networks of farmers, researchers and extension services.
The IPM Facility will be staffed by a small group of
professionals with extensive international experience,
technical skills, project implementation expertise and
recognition by international research, development and donor
communities. It will be hosted by FAO while drawing on
existing networks of individuals, agencies and NGOs.
Key activities of the IPM Facility will include:
-- identifying specific scientific, technical, social and
political constraints affecting IPM implementation, and
propose means of removing these constraints;
-- facilitating collaboration among national policy makers,
development agencies and NGOs on planning and implementating
IPM activities;
-- stimulating development of improved IPM concepts and
practices through research that increases participation of
farmers, extensionists and on-farm researchers;
-- identifying and assisting in preparation of high priority
pilot and large scale projects for investment by national,
bilateral and multilateral sources;
-- documenting and evaluating IPM pilot projects and other
experiences to provide best practices, policy and management
options; and
-- advising national programs on design, implementation and
evaluation of IPM programs.
Sources: World Bank Press Release, March 30, 1995; Financial
Times, April 4, 1995; conversation with Facility staff, May
1995; Executive Summary, Concept Paper for an Integrated Pest
Management Facility Prepared by an Inter-Agency Task Force on
Integrated Pest Management, October 1994.
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