The Asian IPM Trainers Team

The planning document for Phase IV of the  FAO Regional IPM Program described how conditions in the region would be changed because of the Regional Program’s activities.  The document described a situation where there would be:  “Core groups of Asian IPM trainers that are capable of designing, implementing and managing community driven, national and international IPM program.”

An “Asian IPM trainers team”, playing a lead role in the development of Community IPM across the region, was a key strategy in planning for the present phase of the regional program.  That team is active and well and this issue of Spider Web focuses on their activities. 

Since 1990 The FAO Regional IPM Program has helped 10 countries in the region establish rice IPM farmer training projects. The help provided to those countries by the regional program was focused mainly on training.  The regional program has recruited veteran trainers from member countries to provide this help.  Typically, these trainers have conducted three or four season-long TOT’s for IPM Field Trainers before they have had any foreign experience.  Many also have up to five years of experience in managing IPM field activities at a provincial or regional level.

Moreover, the training also provided an opportunity for participants to learn more about non-formal education, organizing, and evaluation.  The language learning program resulted in not only enhancing participant’s skills in English, but also in creating the basis for the establishment of an Asian IPM Trainers Team.  This group of trainers has since come to be known as the A-Team.

Since the beginning of the fourth phase of the FAO Regional Program in January of 1998, 30 trainers from Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Philippines have worked in eight member countries.  These A-Team trainers assisted 20different kinds of training related activities.  A-Team trainers also planned and conducted two international seminars, one on developing farmers as IPM trainers and the other on developing the A-Team itself.   The A-Team were essential in helping to establish the IPM farmer training program in Nepal, operationalizing IPM farmer training plans in Thailand, and further enhancing an already strong IPM program in China. (See Table 1., below)  The A-Team has become an outstanding example of “South-South” technical co-operation.  Funding of A-Team technical support activities relies on either of two sources.  The FAO Regional Program is the main source of funds for A-Team activities, but almost just as often, the “client” or project hosting pays for the A-Team member.

Typically, members of the A-Team are in their thirties, have attended university, and have extensive training experience.  Nanang Budianto, a field worker from the Indonesian Crop Protection Directorate, participated in the first TOT for IPM Field Trainers in Indonesia in 1989-1990.  After completing his training, he conducted IPM Farmers Field Schools until he was selected to become a lead trainer at the next IPM TOT in his region.  In 1994, Nanang became a member of the provincial IPM management team for the implementation of the Indonesian National IPM Training Project in his province. Nanang’s A-Team experience includes providing training support to the first season-long IPM TOT’s conducted by CARE in Bangladesh, working for two seasons in IPM TOT’s in China, and conducting a management training seminar in Vietnam.  His background and experience is fairly typical of members of the A-Team.

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