Country
Report: Click here
to download the report submitted at the meeting of the
Programme Advisory Committee, November 2001 (pdf file)
Organisation:
The management of pests and diseases
in the agriculture sector in Malaysia is co-ordinated by two agricultural agencies under the Ministry of
Agriculture. They are the Department of Agriculture (DOA) and the Malaysian Agricultural
Research and Development Institute (MARDI). MARDI is responsible for research while DOA
oversees technology and extension. To facilitate the rapid implementation of the national
IPM programmes, the National IPM committee is being restructured. IPM implementation
committees were [also] established in the states and locality level. These committees
comprise of representatives from agencies involved in research, implementation and
management.
Training: Training courses in
IPM are conducted regularly by various departments, research institutions, and by
universities as part of their scheduled programmes. DOA conducts training in various
aspects of IPM for various crops to their policy makers/planners, technical and extension
officers regularly. Some of these training courses were conducted at the staff training
centres and monthly seminars using in-house and local expertise and experiences available
within the DOA and other agencies. A total of 602 officers had attended courses on various
disciplines of IPM during 1997 – 1998 at the staff training
centres. A total of 115
courses on IPM were given to various groups involved in IPM at the ground level (i.e.
extension officers, teachers, youth, college students).
Development in Community IPM: Apart from survey
and monitoring teams from the DOA, activities were extended to more rice areas and
strengthened where work brigades consisting of farmers children, rural youth or farmers
themselves are deployed to carry out farmers based surveillance. Besides doing the pest
surveillance, the brigades are also involved in other agricultural activities in IPM such
as rat bait application, fish and duck rearing, putting on light traps, pheromone traps
and spraying whenever the situation warrants it. School children brigades are not allowed
to do spraying or any pesticides application. The involvement of school children and youth
has contributed manpower/resource to farming community and created interest among brigade
members on field activities and sustainability of the natural environment. At present,
there are 814 brigades being formed with 10,759 members from all the rice areas in
Malaysia.
Biological Control of
Rats: IPM for rat control in rice involves the integration of diverse methods such as
field sanitation, simultaneous planting, chemical baiting, physical barriers and more
recently the use of barn owls. The barn owl biological control approach is not only found
to be the most effective and suitable, but also reduces or eliminates the use of chemical
baits with no adverse effect to the environment. Since 1993, in order to promote
biological control for rats using barn owl, DOA stopped giving assistance/subsidy for rat
baits. As such, the DOA saved 21,494 metric tons of rat baits/year, equivalent to RM12.5
million per year. The implementation of this programme has reduced the rat damage areas
(above ETL) to 3,000 ha in 1995 and 0 ha in 1998, saving 6903 metric tons of
padi, an
estimated value of RM5.1 million. With the presence of barn owl in rice areas, farmers do
not require to apply 16 rounds of rat baits/year. They will require doing 2 application
per year or none at all. With this, the farmers saved RM30/ha/year, i.e. cost of rat
control.
