and Integrated Pest Management - part - usaid

110 PESTICIDE MANAGIMENT AND IPM INSOUTHLEAST ASIA
before insccticidcs and the latter before fertilizer, in terms of their expected
contributions to yield increase.
This selected example shows that in implementing IPM programs, we need
to identify the farmers' perceptions. These hive to be compared to location
specific, research findings and eventually need to be corrected by training and
communication approaches.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
IPM, if it is to be adopted by a large number of farmers, has to offer more
economic advan!ages based on more concrete recommendations than it does at
present. If the IPM definition adopted by us is going to be realized, there is a
strong need, in our view, to add other aspects to it.
Firstly, when we talk about reducing costs of pest control by applying the
ET concept, we should not only consider the amount which can be saved by less
spraying, but also the output of an alteinative use of this amount. For example,
when pest sampling shows that no insecticide application is required before
flowering, the money originally being reserved for insecticides could be used for
applying more fertilizer.
In another study based on a simple decision model using time series pest
data, the marginal net return in relative terms of the ET-strategy may be
increased from 0.67% to almost 8% as compared to a farmer's strategy (Waibel
1986a).
Secondly, localion specific agronomic practices, which combine the
requirements of plant production and plant protection in an economically optimal
way, need to be defined. Only then would one be able to substitute the 'green
revolution' package of technology with an 'IPM package'. There would be a
marked difference between both packages. Whereas the oWd package was offered
as a fixed product, e.g., the 16 steps of rice production (Masagana program in the
Philipnines), the IPM package would consist of a set of decision rules, e.g. if
you find less than a specified level of pest until this date, then apply more
fertilizer. The new package would be more likely to achieve an optimal
allocation of scarce farm resources as inputs would have to be applied according
to states of nature, thus increasing the overall productivity of the farm.
There are also demands to be made on the organizations and institutions
involved in the implementation of IPM. IPM clearly is a multidisciplinary
problem-solving technology and as such it needs to be treated at least within
exteusion organizations. To date, IPM has been too mnuch of the entomologist's
business but it should - much more than is the case now - include other
disciplines, especially agronomy.
Surveillance programs can serve as a good point for launching and gradually
implementing IPM. However, these program-, often combine two things which
cannot go together: to prevent large-scale pest outbreaks and to collect data for
developing IPM-based recommendations. We believe that surveillance has to
concencrate on the second aspect while the prevention of pes: outbreaks can only
effectively be achieved by the farmers themselves with the support of local