News
December
2001:
Experts discuss future of IPM in Asia
What
can be done to sustain training programmes for Integrated
Pest Management (IPM) in Asia?
That was the question being discussed at a recent
meeting in Ayutthaya, Thailand, organized by the Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
Attending the meeting of the ‘Programme Advisory
Committee’ held
between 26th and 28th November,
were 70 experts representing different IPM
stakeholders. These organizations included Ministries of
Agriculture from twelve countries, donor agencies,
Non-Government Organisations and farmer associations.
The
theme of the meeting was particularly important in light of
the planned completion in 2002 of The FAO Programme for
Community IPM in Asia.
For more than two decades this has been a flagship
programme of the FAO, playing a key role in the development
and promotion of methods which help farmers learn about
agro-ecology. With help from FAO, millions of Asian farmers
have been trained during ‘Farmer Field Schools’, an
approach which has become a cornerstone of environmental
agriculture programmes in many countries.
Go
here to
download the Executive Summary, List of Participants and
Country Reports
The
reports submitted at the meeting in Thailand made it clear
that strong National IPM Programmes now exist across Asia.
A number of speakers described the growth of
farmer-to-farmer training in their respective countries,
and it was evident that many IPM programmes now encompass a
wide range of ‘livelihood’ issues such as community
health, primary schools, biodiversity and governance.
Participants
of the meeting were confident that these National
Programmes will continue to develop after the current FAO
technical assistance comes to an end, using funding from
National and Local Governments, 
and
with support from a number of donor agencies and NGOs.
The FAO will continue to support these programmes through
other mechanisms, including the Global IPM Facility, the
Technical Cooperation Programme and various policy forums.
On
the third and final day of the meeting there was
considerable discussion on the establishment of new
organizations to help sustain Community IPM in Asia.
This discussion stemmed from the recommendations of the Mid
Term Review of the FAO Programme for Community IPM which
was carried out at the end of 2000. The participants
of the meeting in Thailand identified a number of
strategies and structures which could be adopted to create
new organistions which, while independently managed, would
complement and enhance the work of National IPM Programmes
and the efforts of the FAO. It now remains for interested
organizations to prepare detailed plans and proposals in
collaboration with the FAO Programme for Community IPM
during its final months.
Russ
Dilts, the Regional IPM Coordinator of the FAO, said that “this
meeting was not an ‘End’, but rather a ‘Beginning’
for a broader, deeper, spread and development of Community
IPM capable of taking on the ever increasing and
multi-faceted challenges faced by farmers and the
agriculture sector in the coming years”.
