Integrated pest management empowers rice farmers
Integrated pest management empowers rice farmers
JAKARTA (JP): Shortly after sunrise, a group of 25 farmers in
Rejomulyo village, East Java, gather at the edge of the village
rice fields. An instructor stands and asks, "What will our
activity be today?" One farmer responds confidently, "To conduct
a field study of natural enemies."
There follows an animated discussion about natural enemies --
the insects that prey upon rice parasites -- after which the
farmers disappear into the field to observe and collect these
helpful bugs.
This is just one example of the Integrated Pest Management
Field Schools that are becoming an increasingly common sight in
Indonesian villages.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an innovative approach to
rice farming that seeks to boost rice production while minimizing
the ecological and human damage caused by pesticide use.
In the past, pesticides have been part and parcel of
Indonesian rice farming. Farmers tend to apply pesticides
whenever they observe an outbreak of insects.
Often the proliferating insects are harmless, but the effect
of pesticides can be all too real, as the chemicals frequently
prove toxic to farmers, their crops, ground water and the
surrounding ecosystems.
The danger of indiscriminate spraying became palpable in 1986
when an outbreak of brown planthoppers (wereng coklat) threatened
Indonesia's hard-won rice self-sufficiency. After a spate of
sprayings failed to quell the outbreak, research revealed that
pesticides had actually encouraged the brown planthopper by
killing off its natural predators.
President Soeharto took swift action, banning 57 of the 65
pesticides used on rice at the time and beginning the elimination
of all government subsidies on insecticides.
The government also began channeling increased resources into
the country's fledgling IPM program.
Integrated Pest Management rests on the philosophy that
agricultural fields are complex, living systems and that the
application of pesticides is more often a disruption than a
benefit to those systems.
IPM therefore seeks to replace pesticide use with natural
approaches to controlling agricultural pests. These techniques
include growing a strong, healthy crop that can resist pests,
effective crop rotation, and encouraging the natural enemies of
crop parasites.
"The goal of IPM is to minimize the damage done by pests and
to maximize field productivity by maintaining the delicate
harmony of the agroecosystem," explains Prof. Ida Nyoman Oka, who
headed the Indonesian National IPM Program Working Group for
several years and is still active in IPM activities.
Ecological approaches to pest management have, of course, been
around for decades. What makes Indonesia's IPM program unique is
its innovative approach to farmer education, which is
accomplished through "Farmer Field Schools" -- twelve-week,
hands-on programs held right in the rice fields.
These "schools without walls" form the core of the IPM program
and to date have been held in thousands of villages across the
archipelago. Funding for these schools is provided by the
Indonesian government, the U.S. Agency for International
Development and the World Bank.
The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
provides technical assistance.
Instead of teaching a fixed set of techniques or practices,
field schools teach farmers to understand their rice fields as
systems that evolve and change.
"No two fields are the same; no two seasons are the same,"
explains Russ Dilts of the United Nations FAO. "To teach farmers
a specific set of practices is self-defeating. Those techniques
might be irrelevant to a particular field or they could become
outdated as the field grows and changes."
Instead, field schools help farmers understand how their
fields grow and how the insects living in the fields interact.
IPM farmers become IPM experts who can test new techniques,
evaluate their effectiveness, and then decide whether or not to
implement them.
"Through field schools, farmers gain a holistic understanding
of how the various organisms in the rice field affect one
another," says Andrea Yates of the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID).
"This makes the program truly sustainable, because the farmers
can continue to monitor and assess their crops long after the
field school has concluded."
Unique approach
Underlying the success of IPM Farmer Field Schools is a unique
approach to education, one that does not simply pass on
knowledge, but enables the farmer to learn for him or herself.
"Field school trainers do not 'lecture' their students,"
explains Prof. Oka. Rather, they employ the "Socratic method" of
asking questions that allow the student to derive his or her own
answers.
Instead of describing a specific insect, for example, trainers
guide the farmers through a series of questions -- "where did you
find it?","what was it doing?" -- that allows the farmers to
draw their own conclusions about the insect, its habits, and its
helpfulness or harmfulness to the field.
Once a farmer discovers this method of questioning, he can
continue the learning process on his own. As Kusni, an East
Javanese rice farmer put it: "Now our teacher doesn't teach us;
we teach ourselves. Now we understand."
IPM students even learn to conduct their own research,
recording their field observations and comparing these findings
over months and years. Many create "insect zoos", isolated
sections of the rice fields where specific bugs are kept for
observation and testing.
This unique approach to education gives the farmers a sense of
"ownership" in the IPM program.
"IPM empowers rice farmers by giving them the tools to act
independently in improving their fields," says Russ Dilts of FAO.
As one farmer commented of IPM, "before, when we followed an
agricultural program, we just did what we were told. Now we
really understand what we're doing."
In recent years, Indonesia's IPM program has begun to take on
a life of its own. Local governments, which have always supported
the program, are becoming increasingly involved in organizing and
supporting field school programs.
"A lot of spontaneous training is also occurring," notes
Andrea Yates of USAID. "Farmers that have completed the field
school are often approached by others and asked about IPM. There
seems to be a growing interest in the program in many villages."
The results of the IPM Program's intensive efforts speak for
themselves. Over 400,000 farmers have completed field school
training.
In fields using IPM techniques, pesticide expenditures have
dropped by 50-60 percent since 1985 while rice production has
risen.
The Indonesian government, in turn, has saved an estimated Rp
200 billion annually since it eliminated pesticide subsidies in
the late 1980s.
What these figures do not measure is the immense benefit to
human health and to the environment that reduced pesticide use
entails.
The future of IPM in Indonesia looks equally bright. The
program demonstrated its staying power in 1991 when a plague of
white rice stemborers (penggerek batang padi putih) descended on
rice paddies in West Java.
Calls rang out for massive spraying, yet the local governments
decided to stay with IPM techniques. In a miraculous
mobilization, field trainers issued basic instruction to over
300,000 farmers on how to handle the stemborer infestation.
Within months the outbreak was brought under control with
minimal damage to IPM rice paddies. Those fields that did apply
insecticides actually fared much worse.
Successes like this one have earned Indonesia's IPM program
worldwide renown, and officials from developed and developing
nations alike have come to study the program.
Since IPM hinges on a universal "learning process" and not a
location-specific set of facts or techniques, the program shows
promise of helping farmers worldwide to increase their
productivity while at the same time protecting the environment.
"In this sense," says Russ Dilts, "IPM is valuable and
relevant not only to Indonesia, and not just to farmers, but to
the well-being of the planet in general."
-- Dean Carignan