What is Community IPM all about?

Community IPM is about farmers organising and implementing their own IPM activities. It is about farmers becoming the instigators of IPM rather than just the recipients. It is about group action which uses the agro-ecological concepts of IPM to analyse problems, design field studies and carry out experiments. It is about farmers joining forces to promote and protect farming practices which they know are healthier and more efficient.

Community IPM has emerged from training programmes organised by Government agencies and NGOs in various parts of Asia. It is the graduates of Farmer Field Schools (FFS) who have decided to plan and manage their own IPM activities. Government and NGO trainers now have a new role to play in supporting farmers who are managing their own IPM activities.

Examples of Community IPM activities where training is prominent are: FFS conducted by IPM farmers for other farmers; incorporation of IPM into the curriculum of local schools; IPM as part of functional literacy programmes.

Examples of activities where experimentation is prominent are: insect zoos and compensation studies, managed by farmers as part of FFS organised by the Government or NGOs; field studies which are organised and implemented by groups of FFS graduates; action research facilities, involving a number of studies carried out by IPM farmers over a number of cropping seasons.

Examples of activities where organising is prominent are: IPM farmer clubs, associations and congresses; planning and technical meetings organised by farmers; farmers' advocacy and efforts to mobilise funding from local government in support of community action.

Community IPM started among Asian rice farmers who wanted to solve pest management problems, but it has developed in a number of directions. Other crops, such as vegetables, maize, soybean, cotton and tea have also become the focus of training and experimentation managed by IPM farmers. And issues such soil fertility, water management and marketing have sometimes become just as important as solving pest problems, if not more so. Finally, it is not just in Asia where Community IPM is happening. As a result of international exchanges by IPM trainers and programme managers, Farmer Field Schools and Community-based IPM programmes have started in a number of African countries and in parts of the Near East.