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Annual report 1995-1996Getting farmers to adopt IPM principles  How do researchers get lots of farmers to adopt
integrated pest management (IPM) principles-without spending piles of money
on in-depth training?
Researchers from IRRI have been taking a novel approach to this problem. They've been inviting farmers to experiment with simple pest management concepts backed up by solid scientific findings-and they've been using a media campaign to facilitate the process. The experiment on encouraging farmers to experiment was launched in September 1994 in Long An Province, in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Posters were placed in markets and stores in the villages, leaflets were delivered directly to homes, dramas were broadcast on provincial radio stations, and billboards were placed at major road junctions. The message to thousands of rice farmers in the region was clear: insecticide spraying for leaffolder control within the first 40 days after rice sowing is not necessary and that they should try this "rule of thumb" for themselves.According to Dr. K.L. Heong, IRRI entomologist and coordinator of the Rice IPM Network, research at IRRI and elsewhere had proven that the rice crop does not suffer any yield loss from leaf damage during the early stage of the cropping season. "In Vietnam, farmers are only convinced of a technology if they see it for themselves," says Dr. Heong. "So, in cooperation with the University of Can Tho and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), we invited groups of farmers in Can Tho, An Giang, and Tien Giang provinces to conduct spraying experiments of their own." The participatory approach was very effective in communicating the concept to farmers. "But we wanted to reach even larger numbers of farmers-and quicker," says Dr. Heong. "So MARD, the Long An Provincial government, and the Network organized a workshop to design materials for a large-scale campaign to encourage farmers to experiment with the 40-day spraying delay concept in Long An Province in September 1994."
The farmer experiments and media campaigns have been continued into 1996 by provincial agricultural departments throughout the Mekong Delta, to get the message out to the region's more than 2.2 million farmer households. Concludes Dr. Heong: "The experiments combined with targeted information campaigns appear to be an effective way to encourage farmers to experiment and discover IPM concepts, hence improving their pest management decisions. MARD and IRRI scientists plan to study the long-term impact of this two-pronged approach."
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• Annual Report 2000-2001 • Annual Report 1999-2000 • Annual Report 1998-1999 • Annual Report 1997-1998 • Annual Report 1995-1996 If you do not have Acrobat Reader to access the pdf files, click the Icon below to download the free software.
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In
Long An Province's Tan Tru District, researchers found that--thanks to
the media blitz-at least 60% of the 12,500 farmers there had stopped early-season
insecticide use in their autumn-winter crop of 1994. By February 1995,
88% of the farmers in Long An said they were aware of the campaign. By
May of 1995, officials in five other Mekong Delta provinces were promoting
farmer-participatory research with similar campaigns of their own. 
