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Strengthening
Farmers’ IPM in Pesticide-Intensive Areas |
Newsletter about
activities and progress of |
DANIDA
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| 16-17 June 2003
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Season-long Training of Trainers has startedA season-long Training of Trainers (TOT) in vegetable IPM has started at the Mae Jo Field Crops Research Center in Chiang Mai. In the coming weeks the 29 participants will learn about IPM in vegetables in a practical training program where they will grow their own vegetables in experimental plots at the training site. Learning will focus on understanding crop ecology and studying the interactions between pests and natural enemies. Agro-ecosystem analysis (AESA) will be used by the participants to make decisions for crop management in the so-called "IPM plot". This plot will compared with a "Farmers' practice plot" where the crop will be grown just like the farmers in the area are doing. Other plots will be used to set up field experiments where the participants learn observation skills and can discover the effect of various crop management practices. While it is important for the participants to learn about the crop and about Integrated Pest Management, it is even more important to learn the training skills that will allow them to become good facilitators who can work with farmers in a practical and participatory way. The TOT will pay a lot of attention to developing these skills, which they will "learn by doing". One day per week, the participants of the TOT will actually become trainers as they split up un 5 groups and each group will run a Farmer Field School (FFS) with 20-25 farmers who receive this training in their own crop fields. The preparation and running of these FFSs will be supervised by experienced facilitators who maintain the quality of the training and who give feed-back during the evaluation of each training day. The Training of Trainers is only the beginning, as the real objective is to introduce IPM to large numbers of vegetable growers. During the training attention will be given to the planning of farmer training in the season after the TOT. It is now expected that the participants will run at least 36 FFS in vegetable IPM, which will consist each of 20-25 farmers. The following photos give an impression of the first two training days.
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| Director General of DOA during the opening of the TOT on 16 June.
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| A group photo of participants and facilitators.
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| An exam is taken at the beginning of the training to test the current
knowledge of participants.
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| A discussion to find out what different ideas the various participants
have about Integrated Pest Management.
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| Participants have presented their thoughts about IPM.
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| The seedbed. In a season-long TOT the participants are learning about
IPM from seed to harvest.
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| The field where the participants will be growing their own vegetables to
conducts observations and to set up field experiments. The building on the
left is their dormitory and classroom.
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| Lunch time.
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| Preparing for a presentation.
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| A facilitator explains how to play a game. Short games are used
regularly during the training to have fun and to strengthen relationships
between participants. They will use these games also when training
farmers.
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| Keeping a straw in the mouth we have to pass on a small rubber band from
one person to another.
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| It's fun to be in this training.
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| Participants are making a drawing where they indicate the desired
qualities of a good facilitator.
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| Working in small groups encourages all participants to participate
actively in the discussions.
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