Integrated pest management empowers rice farmers<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Shortly after sunrise, a group of 25 farmers in
\nRejomulyo village, East Java, gather at the edge of the village
\nrice fields. An instructor stands and asks, \"What will our
\nactivity be today?\" One farmer responds confidently, \"To conduct
\na field study of natural enemies.\"<\/p>\n
There follows an animated discussion about natural enemies --
\nthe insects that prey upon rice parasites -- after which the
\nfarmers disappear into the field to observe and collect these
\nhelpful bugs.<\/p>\n
This is just one example of the Integrated Pest Management
\nField Schools that are becoming an increasingly common sight in
\nIndonesian villages.<\/p>\n
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an innovative approach to
\nrice farming that seeks to boost rice production while minimizing
\nthe ecological and human damage caused by pesticide use.<\/p>\n
In the past, pesticides have been part and parcel of
\nIndonesian rice farming. Farmers tend to apply pesticides
\nwhenever they observe an outbreak of insects.<\/p>\n
Often the proliferating insects are harmless, but the effect
\nof pesticides can be all too real, as the chemicals frequently
\nprove toxic to farmers, their crops, ground water and the
\nsurrounding ecosystems.<\/p>\n
The danger of indiscriminate spraying became palpable in 1986
\nwhen an outbreak of brown planthoppers (wereng coklat) threatened
\nIndonesia's hard-won rice self-sufficiency. After a spate of
\nsprayings failed to quell the outbreak, research revealed that
\npesticides had actually encouraged the brown planthopper by
\nkilling off its natural predators.<\/p>\n
President Soeharto took swift action, banning 57 of the 65
\npesticides used on rice at the time and beginning the elimination
\nof all government subsidies on insecticides.<\/p>\n
The government also began channeling increased resources into
\nthe country's fledgling IPM program.<\/p>\n
Integrated Pest Management rests on the philosophy that
\nagricultural fields are complex, living systems and that the
\napplication of pesticides is more often a disruption than a
\nbenefit to those systems.<\/p>\n
IPM therefore seeks to replace pesticide use with natural
\napproaches to controlling agricultural pests. These techniques
\ninclude growing a strong, healthy crop that can resist pests,
\neffective crop rotation, and encouraging the natural enemies of
\ncrop parasites.<\/p>\n
\"The goal of IPM is to minimize the damage done by pests and
\nto maximize field productivity by maintaining the delicate
\nharmony of the agroecosystem,\" explains Prof. Ida Nyoman Oka, who
\nheaded the Indonesian National IPM Program Working Group for
\nseveral years and is still active in IPM activities.<\/p>\n
Ecological approaches to pest management have, of course, been
\naround for decades. What makes Indonesia's IPM program unique is
\nits innovative approach to farmer education, which is
\naccomplished through \"Farmer Field Schools\" -- twelve-week,
\nhands-on programs held right in the rice fields.<\/p>\n
These \"schools without walls\" form the core of the IPM program
\nand to date have been held in thousands of villages across the
\narchipelago. Funding for these schools is provided by the
\nIndonesian government, the U.S. Agency for International
\nDevelopment and the World Bank.<\/p>\n
The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
\nprovides technical assistance.<\/p>\n
Instead of teaching a fixed set of techniques or practices,
\nfield schools teach farmers to understand their rice fields as
\nsystems that evolve and change.<\/p>\n
\"No two fields are the same; no two seasons are the same,\"
\nexplains Russ Dilts of the United Nations FAO. \"To teach farmers
\na specific set of practices is self-defeating. Those techniques
\nmight be irrelevant to a particular field or they could become
\noutdated as the field grows and changes.\"<\/p>\n
Instead, field schools help farmers understand how their
\nfields grow and how the insects living in the fields interact.
\nIPM farmers become IPM experts who can test new techniques,
\nevaluate their effectiveness, and then decide whether or not to
\nimplement them.<\/p>\n
\"Through field schools, farmers gain a holistic understanding
\nof how the various organisms in the rice field affect one
\nanother,\" says Andrea Yates of the U.S. Agency for International
\nDevelopment (USAID).<\/p>\n
\"This makes the program truly sustainable, because the farmers
\ncan continue to monitor and assess their crops long after the
\nfield school has concluded.\"<\/p>\n
Unique approach<\/p>\n
Underlying the success of IPM Farmer Field Schools is a unique
\napproach to education, one that does not simply pass on
\nknowledge, but enables the farmer to learn for him or herself.<\/p>\n
\"Field school trainers do not 'lecture' their students,\"
\nexplains Prof. Oka. Rather, they employ the \"Socratic method\" of
\nasking questions that allow the student to derive his or her own
\nanswers.<\/p>\n
Instead of describing a specific insect, for example, trainers
\nguide the farmers through a series of questions -- \"where did you
\nfind it?\",\"what was it doing?\" -- that allows the farmers to
\ndraw their own conclusions about the insect, its habits, and its
\nhelpfulness or harmfulness to the field.<\/p>\n
Once a farmer discovers this method of questioning, he can
\ncontinue the learning process on his own. As Kusni, an East
\nJavanese rice farmer put it: \"Now our teacher doesn't teach us;
\nwe teach ourselves. Now we understand.\"<\/p>\n
IPM students even learn to conduct their own research,
\nrecording their field observations and comparing these findings
\nover months and years. Many create \"insect zoos\", isolated
\nsections of the rice fields where specific bugs are kept for
\nobservation and testing.<\/p>\n
This unique approach to education gives the farmers a sense of
\n\"ownership\" in the IPM program.<\/p>\n
\"IPM empowers rice farmers by giving them the tools to act
\nindependently in improving their fields,\" says Russ Dilts of FAO.
\nAs one farmer commented of IPM, \"before, when we followed an
\nagricultural program, we just did what we were told. Now we
\nreally understand what we're doing.\"<\/p>\n
In recent years, Indonesia's IPM program has begun to take on
\na life of its own. Local governments, which have always supported
\nthe program, are becoming increasingly involved in organizing and
\nsupporting field school programs.<\/p>\n
\"A lot of spontaneous training is also occurring,\" notes
\nAndrea Yates of USAID. \"Farmers that have completed the field
\nschool are often approached by others and asked about IPM. There
\nseems to be a growing interest in the program in many villages.\"<\/p>\n
The results of the IPM Program's intensive efforts speak for
\nthemselves. Over 400,000 farmers have completed field school
\ntraining.<\/p>\n
In fields using IPM techniques, pesticide expenditures have
\ndropped by 50-60 percent since 1985 while rice production has
\nrisen.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian government, in turn, has saved an estimated Rp
\n200 billion annually since it eliminated pesticide subsidies in
\nthe late 1980s.<\/p>\n
What these figures do not measure is the immense benefit to
\nhuman health and to the environment that reduced pesticide use
\nentails.<\/p>\n
The future of IPM in Indonesia looks equally bright. The
\nprogram demonstrated its staying power in 1991 when a plague of
\nwhite rice stemborers (penggerek batang padi putih) descended on
\nrice paddies in West Java.<\/p>\n
Calls rang out for massive spraying, yet the local governments
\ndecided to stay with IPM techniques. In a miraculous
\nmobilization, field trainers issued basic instruction to over
\n300,000 farmers on how to handle the stemborer infestation.<\/p>\n
Within months the outbreak was brought under control with
\nminimal damage to IPM rice paddies. Those fields that did apply
\ninsecticides actually fared much worse.<\/p>\n
Successes like this one have earned Indonesia's IPM program
\nworldwide renown, and officials from developed and developing
\nnations alike have come to study the program.<\/p>\n
Since IPM hinges on a universal \"learning process\" and not a
\nlocation-specific set of facts or techniques, the program shows
\npromise of helping farmers worldwide to increase their
\nproductivity while at the same time protecting the environment.<\/p>\n
\"In this sense,\" says Russ Dilts, \"IPM is valuable and
\nrelevant not only to Indonesia, and not just to farmers, but to
\nthe well-being of the planet in general.\"<\/p>\n
-- Dean Carignan<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/integrated-pest-management-empowers-rice-farmers-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }