Farmer IPM Trainers

Many folks assume the answer to the first question is related to a desire to increase the training capacity of a given national IPM programme.  Indeed this answer makes sense to many planners.  But this answer does not consider the goal of Community IPM.  The goal of Community IPM, not to mince words, is to institutionalise IPM at the village level.  This goal implies the necessity of putting into action concepts related to empowerment, civil society, communicative action, sustainable environmental management (or adaptive management), and sustainable livelihoods.  Most government employed IPM trainers and the systems in which they work are limited in what they can do to achieve this goal.  They exist to focus on a narrowly defined mission. On the other hand, farmers are in a position to take action as they see fit.  They can identify and pursue a wide variety of objectives if they have acquired the capacity to do so. 

Farmers are in the best position to institutionalise IPM locally. They live in the village; they aren’t paid to visit the village.  Farmers are uniquely positioned for defining and working on their own problems.  They experience these problems daily; they don’t require surveys to learn about their problems.  Community IPM develops Farmer IPM Trainers because, in the end, only farmers have the right to choose not only how, but also whether to institutionalise IPM in their communities.

The key to developing Farmer IPM Trainers is providing high quality FFS’s.  A high quality FFS helps farmers to both acquire skills related to IPM as well as to establish a common norm and a vision to which they can commit themselves as alumni.  This commitment of IPM alumni and, hence, Farmer IPM Trainers, to a common norm and vision allows them to use the capacities that they have developed in the FFS to pursue a common goal, the institutionalisation of IPM at the village level.   

Eight of the countries associated with the regional Community IPM programme, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, have trained farmers to be facilitators of IPM Farmer Field Schools.  Over 30,000 farmers in the region have gone through the TOT activities conducted in these countries.  These farmers have accomplished more than just conducting Farmer Field Schools and increasing the number of FFS alumni generated by a given national programme.  They have played key leadership roles while collaborating with alumni and other farmers to institutionalise IPM in villages across Asia.  Their efforts are no longer limited to just organising rice IPM FFS’s.  They have taken on issues as diverse as farmers’ rights, health, vegetable production, marketing, credit, seed production, and providing education for children.  The following is a short up-date on what Farmer IPM Trainers are doing in the region.

Bangladesh

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