Saturday, September 5, 2009

Training of Trainers for Farmer Field School

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Deanne,
This is real work and the very good use of IPM training. IPM can not be implemented at farmers level with out the concept of Farmers Field School (FFS) because IPM has some specific characters as:
IPM Characteristics

-Location-specific (or farm-specific);
-knowledge-intensive;
-complex;
-emphasizes sustainability;
-requires group action;
-aims at sustainability;
-compatible in most farming systems;
-low observability;
-low adoptability;
-requires intensive training

Aspect should farmers consider in IPM decision making

-pest population (types, numbers);
-natural enemy population (type, numbers);
-interactions pests and natural enemies;
-development stage of pests;
-commodity;
-variety;
-development stage of crop;
-weather conditions;
-field condition (water, soil);
-crop health/damage to the crop;
-condition of neighbouring fields;
-crop loss assessment of specific pest problem;
-estimate of commodity price at harvest;
-cost of control measure (labour, equipment, pesticide, other materials)
-availability of resources (money, labour, credit facilities);
-opportunities for other investments and possible profit;
-dependency on certain commodity;
-tenurial status;

The concept of FFS is based on Non Formal Education (NFE). Large-scale IPM extension programmes in Asia which began applying the principle of NFE, have achieved good results. This indicates that this approach is very suitable for sustainable agriculture. So we adopted the concept of FFS for implementation of IPM in rice and other crops here in India.

IPM seeks to help farmers become better managers, incorporate natural processes into farming, and reduce off-farm in-puts, leading to a more profitable and efficient production, and to better human and environmental health and this can be applied to both large and small scale agriculture. IPM relies on farmers’ increased knowledge, active monitoring and analytic decision making with respect to pest management at the farm level. It preferably applies measures preventing the development of pest populations rather than those controlling pests.

NFE emphasizes experience-based learning linked to living problems. It seeks to empower people to actively solve those problems by fostering participation, self-confidence, dialogue, joint decision making and self-determination.
WISH YOU ALL THE BEST.
P. V. VERMA
IPM IN OILSEEDS CROPS
NATIONAL CENTRE FOR IPM
PUSA CAMPUS, NEW DELHI, INDIA

pvv@indiatimes.com

December 1, 2009 at 9:02 PM

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