Farmer participated on-farm validation of IPM [integrated pest management] technologies for lowland rice in Central Luzon and Iloilo provinces [Philippines]

Benchmark data showed that all the prospective cooperators have all undergone IPM trainings in either the DA [Department of Agriculture, Quezon City, Philippines] full term farmer's field school (FFS) or the many variations of 1- to 5-day IPM trainings conducted by government as well as private companies. The most commonly planted variety was IR64 although in Nueva Ecija [Philippines], particularly in Bantug, cooperators do plant more than one variety - a strategy aimed at diversifying the genetic-base of the crop planted over an area. Reduction in pesticide use and identification of pests are the more evident characteristics of farmers exposed to the four-month IPM field school type of training. While Iloilo farmers had also required good level of identification skills for rice pests, their ability to recognize the beneficial ones needs improvement. Actual field trials involving rice farmers in Bantug, Munoz and Sto. Cristo, Gapan, Nueva Ecija and at Magdangan Norte and Dawis Sur, Zarraga, Iloilo [Philippines] showed that pest pressure in these sites was below the present interagency thresholds for all major insect pests. However, the tungro problem in Iloilo, while prevalent in nearby fields, did not affect the trials. In Dawis Sur, three out of five farmers sprayed with the mere presence of insects particularly green leafhopper for fear of tungro. When asked about their basis of decision making on insecticide use, 100 percent claim to use the input as "the need arises". However, despite their season long training (FFS type) the project staff did not see them doing actual monitoring and population assessment. The Sto. Cristo farmers who sprayed their field despite the low insect pressure had positive yield advantage over their unsprayed plots (3 to 6 cavans/ha). This experience and the few other cases observed in other places strengthened the thoughts of probably looking seriously at the present threshold levels being followed. Population counts of beneficial arthropods in both sprayed and unsprayed plots showed no statistical differences