and Integrated Pest Management - part - usaid

56 PES'IiCIDE MANAGIEMI/N'I AND 1PM IN SOUTHEu7AST ASIA
Compu'e.r-Aided Pest Surveillance in Malaysia
In Malaysia, the national pest surveillance system was implemented in 1979
following outbreaks of the brown planthopper (Ooi 1982), and is now being
conducted in all the rice-growing areas in Peninsular Malaysia by a team of 11
officers, 5 assistant officers, 36 technicians, 7 drivers, and 131 pest scouts. Data
collected from the field are summarized and recorded on several copies. One copy
is sent to the headquarters where they are entered into a microcomputer and
subsequently stored on magnetic tapes (Heong 1986b). Another copy is used by
the local pest surveillance officer for real-time decisions in the various localities
under his charge. The officer scans the data for all the localities and if
abnormally high pest levels are observed, he calls a meeting of the local pest
control committee. The committee, comprising officers from research,
technical, and extension units, then decides on the control action to be taken.
At the headquarters, the data retrieved by the microcomputer are used to
generate various reports for policy makers. For better visual displays, density
maps are also generated by the microcomputer. The data sets are later analyzed
to produce historical information such as population trends and probabilities of
attacks.
The main constraint of the system is the time delay between data collection
and information reception at the regional agricultural offices. Information
delivery to individual farmers is also inefficient. To partly overcome this, a
relatively inexpensive system involving the use of 8-bit microcomputers, data
storage on diskettes and data communications via the RS 232 interface was
proposed (Heong 1986b). This system allows the regional surveillance officer to
retrieve information every afternoon about the pest, crop, and environment, from
data collected and keyed-in each morning, thus enabling him to make real-time
decisions more effectively. The computer in the headquarters then serves as the
main data bank from which further analysis of the data to develop historical and
forecast information can be carried out. It can also provide executive summaries
to policy makers for planning purposes. With the recent advances in
microcomputer technology, the management of pest databases using this
approach is now more efficient and economical.
Pest Surveillance Methods
A variety of absolute and relative insect population estimation methods for
rice are now available (Benigno 1978, Dyck 1978, Gomez 1972, Heong 1981,
Kiritani 1972, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Japan 1967, Nishida &
Torii 1970). Other ecological methods that can be adapted for rice have also
been described (Heong 1986a, Southwood 1978). Different methods are used
depending on the objectives of sampling and the expected reliability. Most of
the absolute methods are laborious, like direct counting of egg masses, insect
adults and nymphs using an aspirator and suction machines. The "sticky board"
used by pest surveillance in Malaysia (Heong 1981), on the other hand, has
proved to be reliable and easy to manage. This method involves tapping insects
on rice plants onto a board holding a piece of white paper spread with a sticky