Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
11.4.2 Reformed Knowledge Transfer
to Support IPM
of promoting IPM, but in many developing coun-
tries, budget cuts and a lack of emphasis on agri-
cultural development have left farmer-extension
ratios far too large for adequate advice to be
provided. This causes farmers to shift towards the
promises of local pesticide salespersons when
they encounter a serious pest or disease problem.
Policies need to be put in place to strengthen and
reform governmental and nongovernmental
extension services and to promote coordination
and cooperation between the public, private, and
not-for-profi t sectors. The public and private sec-
tors need to be trained and rewarded for the pro-
motion of IPM principles. For local pesticide
retailers and dealers, this should include training
programs, certifi cation, and monitoring schemes.
These activities have to be supported by a stricter
international control of the sale of cheap, fake,
and internationally banned pesticides.
However, traditional linear research-extension
models alone are unlikely to be successful in
scaling out multicomponent IPM technologies.
There is a need for a shift away from the promo-
tion of pure technology towards innovation sys-
tems. These include functioning networks of
farmers, technology developers, extension work-
ers, local businessmen, and researchers and facil-
itate the adaptation of technologies to local
conditions and farmers' decision-making on the
selection and deployment of technologies in their
time and place.
There is also a dire need for the introduction
and adaptation of modern extension tools, such
as online-decision-support systems to increase
the impact of extension. These innovative sys-
tems are used in practical IPM in developed
countries and can be modifi ed to suit specifi c
regions and cropping systems. Pest monitoring
models and standard recommendations for a
range of pests affecting a broad spectrum of crops
based on weather data can be used to make CHM
decisions in the fi eld. This can be done centrally
and the information on management can be
spread by telecommunication tools to extension
agents and farmers. However, these modern
methods should be applied in such a way that
Pest management structures and policies need to
recognize that crop health is an essential element
of sustainable agriculture that needs immediate
improvement. Many policies are aimed at sup-
porting pest control as a separate activity, often
relying solely on the application of pesticides or
the use of resistant cultivars. In the longer term,
this has been shown to be unsustainable - whether
as a result of pests overcoming host plant resis-
tance and building up resistance to pesticides or
the improper, excessive, or unnecessary use of
pesticides with unacceptable impacts on humans,
animals, and ecosystem services.
Farming has replaced diverse ecosystems with
simplifi ed cropping systems that have disruptive
impacts on the services that an intact natural eco-
system provides. Therefore, a sole reliance on
ecosystem services for CHM is insuffi cient. When
pest outbreaks and devastating crop losses occur,
farmers become disillusioned with the effective-
ness of complex approaches for CHM and often
revert to the sole use of pesticides. This under-
scores the need for integrating modern and tradi-
tional pest management approaches that provide
appropriate tools and solutions for different situa-
tions. Structures and policies must provide incen-
tives to adopt practices that favor ecosystem
services. These policies must support extension
offi cers and farmers in incorporating the range of
options available and the positive and negative
effects they carry, when not used by the farmer.
Policies are needed that facilitate the development
of effective and environmentally sound manage-
ment technologies, as well as practices that can be
made readily available to the farmers. Policy mak-
ers need to provide incentives to encourage the
adoption and adaptation of IPM to local condi-
tions through a strengthening of knowledge trans-
fer to upgraded extension services.
Extension, the link between science and the
farmer and the backbone of sustainable crop
improvement, needs to be a major aspect of CHM
in the future. Extension is the only effective way
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