Training News 

In this section we welcome all your experiences in working directly with the end-users of arthropod and microbial biocontrol agents or in educational activities on natural enemies aimed at students, farmers, extension staff or policymakers.

 

Vegetable IPM Gains Ground in Ghana

Good planning and prior validation of methods are key elements in the success of a Farmer Field School (FFS) training scheme for vegetable IPM in Ghana. The Ghanaian Government's enthusiasm for FFSs has its origins in a successful pilot project on FFSs in rice IPM in 1996, which became the starting point for an expansion of FFS/IPM training into other crops within the framework of the National IPM Programme. A consultative workshop in May 1997 made recommendations and an action plan for this expansion, which included a national programme and a sub-programme tailor-made for five districts selected for UNDP assistance. One of these sub-programmes was for vegetable IPM/FFS training.

The sub-programme began with a national survey of crop practices in vegetables, followed in January 1998 by a workshop to design a workplan for a six-month vegetable IPM trial validation period. At the workshop, vegetable farmers' problems were prioritized, and these were linked with field trials and exercises to be validated by the future vegetable IPM master trainers. Validation of the trials and exercises was conducted during a 'pre-TOT' (Training of Trainers) period at Ashiaman in February-August 1998. Participants were local scientists and IPM trainers who had undergone the previous IPM TOT in 1995-96, and had conducted subsequent rice IPM FFSs. The output of the workshop was a detailed work plan for the pre-TOT period, including six field trials each for tomato and cabbage, dealing with the effects on crop health and production of variety and nursery practices, land preparation, transplanting method, fertilizer, intercropping, weed management, pest and disease management, water management and harvesting procedures. Potential IPM exercises to be validated throughout this period were also designed, together with methods for agro-ecosystem analysis (AESA). A study tour by three of the future vegetable IPM master trainers to the Cambodia IPM programme was made in February 1998.

The results of the validation trials were used as the basis for a workshop held in August 1998 to develop a curriculum for a season-long vegetable IPM TOT. The workshop was in two parts: during the first week, participants included a mixture of university and research institution scientists, representatives from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), the Vegetable Producers and Exporters Association of Ghana, Ghana Irrigation Development Authority, FAO (the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN), GTZ (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, Germany) and the Post-Harvest Division of MOFA, together with coordinators of vegetable projects, IPM/FFS master trainers, vegetable farmers and an IPM/FFS consultant from CABI Bioscience. The second week was more informal, with master trainers and the CABI Bioscience consultant discussing and preparing a detailed curriculum for the vegetable TOT in Weija.

The season-long IPM TOT began at the Weija Irrigation Project on 24 August 1998, and ran until 18 December of the same year, following the curriculum devised at the workshop, and incorporating trials on cabbage and tomato. Five FFSs with 25-30 farmers took place simultaneously for the TOT trainees to learn and practise FFS skills. There were some 30 TOT trainees, who came from Ghana and Malawi, and from both government ministries and institutions and NGOs. After the TOT, graduate trainers returned to their various bases in Ghana and Malawi and initiated vegetable FFSs in their respective areas.

By the end of 1999, 240 farmers at Weija had been trained through the TOT in 1998 and follow-up FFFs in 1999. Many farmers at Weija had abandoned cabbage growing over recent years because pest damage was so high and they were ill-equipped, in terms of both knowledge and resources, to manage it. However, the results from the cabbage trials conducted during the season-long IPM TOT, which compared farmers' traditional practices with IPM practices, suggest that FFSs can lead to radical improvements for cabbage growers. The IPM practices included improved nursery and planting practices, the use of manure and mulches, and weekly AESA to decide whether crop protection measures (biopesticides - Bacillus thuringiensis, and botanicals - neem and garlic) were needed. Cabbage yields and net returns recorded in three farmers fields indicated that where farmers used their conventional practices, they achieved yields of 1.8-14.4 t/ha and consistently made losses (of Cedi 0.67-1.6 million), but where they adopted IPM practices, they achieved yields of 18.3-27.5 t/ha, and consistently showed profits (of Cedi 1.7-3.9 million). [US$1 ˜ Cedi 2500]

Contact: Janny Vos, CABI Bioscience UK Centre (Ascot), Silwood Park,
Buckhurst Road, Ascot, SL5 7TA, UK
Email: j.vos@cabi.org
Fax: +44 1491 829123

 

Tomato Training at the Fayoum Oasis

The Fayoum Oasis is a natural depression 80 km west of Cairo in Egypt, of which the deepest part (Lake Qarun) is some 40 m below sea level. The climate is dry (10 mm annual rainfall) with hot summers and mild winters, and the entire area is dependent on irrigation water from the River Nile, which enters via a single conduit from the southeast, the Bahr Yousof Canal. Yet the Fayoum has always been one of Egypt's major crop-producing areas. Irrigation water is available year-round, but the supply is limited in the hottest months. About 87% of the area is cultivated with field crops (wheat, berseem, sorghum, maize, cotton) and 9% with vegetables (notably tomato and cucurbits). The cropping pattern is based on three seasons: winter, summer and nili. Although some 20% of Egypt's total tomato production is still located in the Fayoum, it has declined to its present level of some 13,500 feddan from some 70,000 feddan in 1989 [1 feddan = 0.42 ha]. In recent years a geminivirus, tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) transmitted by whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci), has been a serious constraint to tomato cultivation, and this has been related to the development of insecticide resistance in the vector. TYLCV is a widespread and devastating disease of tomato in the eastern Mediterranean. It was first described in Israel in 1966, and from Egypt in 1969. A severe outbreak in Fayoum in 1988-89 resulted in the failure of the major tomato crop.

For the last 15 years, farmers in the Fayoum have benefitted from support by the Dutch-funded Horticultural Development Project (HDP) The project has investigated and developed measures to alleviate TYLCV, including land preparation, reduction of insecticide use, post-harvest sanitation, introduction of virus-resistant/tolerant hybrids, elimination of a known alternative host (Datura stramonium) in the vicinity and identification of other over-summering hosts, interrupting continuous tomato cropping, intercropping with aubergine, and trapping whiteflies in open nurseries. According to a survey on current practices conducted in 1996, farmers intercrop tomatoes with cucurbits so the latter can act as a trap crop for the whiteflies and reduce TYLCV incidence in the tomatoes. (The Fayoum produces some 21% of Egypt's cucurbits.) The most common tomato variety in the Fayoum, Castle Rock, is very susceptible to TYLCV and has no heat tolerance. Hybrid varieties have been introduced by the HDP, notably Jackal which is TYLCV-tolerant. Raising hybrid seedlings in unprotected seedbeds is profitable but also very risky with a high chance of failure, so most hybrid seedlings are raised in protected shade houses and sold on. However, only 5-10% of farmers grow hybrid tomatoes because they view the cost of investment in expensive hybrid plants as still too high while the shortage of irrigation water continues. Seeds, fertilizers and pesticides have been identified as the major cost items in tomato cultivation in the Fayoum. Results of surveys found that most farmers interviewed applied fertilizers at least once a season. They also indicated that 45% of farmers used six or more fertilizer applications a season and, in addition, some 80% used insecticides, 30% acaricides and 40% fungicides; most farmers spray insecticides less than four times and fungicides once each season, but some spray five or six times. A host of minor pests have been recorded on tomatoes in the Fayoum but two other major problems are blossom rot and root-knot nematodes (nematodes are found in about 50% of fields).

The HDP ended in August 1999 but it has been succeeded by another Dutch-funded project, the Fayoum Integrated Pest Management Project, which has been conceived as a follow up to increase adoption of the HDP results by farmers. The first 15-month planning phase is to prepare for an implementation programme that will have a Farmer Field School (FFS) focus on IPM in tomato and also cotton and possibly other crops. An important goal is to convince stakeholders of the effectiveness and feasibility of an IPM approach through FFS in the Fayoum. A pilot study is being conducted to demonstrate this and to identify, develop and/or adapt suitable technology for local conditions. Pilot learning activities for tomato are expected to include investigations into the effects on TYLCV of protected vs open nurseries, hybrid vs common varieties, mixed cropping with coriander vs monocropping, and the use of botanicals/biopesticides. A training programme is being developed to train trainers in the FFS style and to familiarize extension staff and farmers with the `learning-by-doing' principles. The project will develop a process to train extension staff as FFS Facilitators initially, and later on as Trainers of Facilitators who will be able to help introduce and implement IPM on a larger scale elsewhere in the Fayoum. Participants are proving very enthusiastic about the new participatory approach to training and there is very good support on the ground.

Contact: Janny Vos, CABI Bioscience,
Silwood Park, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berks. SL5 7TA, UK
Email: j.vos@cabi.org
Fax: +44 1491 829123

 

Training with an Holistic Module Approach in East Africa

The GTZ (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, Germany) IPM Horticulture Project for Eastern and Southern Africa, in collaboration with ICIPE, organized a four-week hands-on IPM training course from 31 May to 25 June 1999. The participants, with BSc or MSc degree or equivalent qualifications, included entomologists, plant pathologists, agricultural extension managers and agronomists from national agricultural research and extension systems in Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ethiopia, Ghana and Sudan.

The course integrated field and laboratory sessions with group assignments on individual crops, plenary sessions and informal lectures to cover complete crop cycles of selected vegetable crops. Emphasis was on integrated pest (insect pests, diseases, weeds, nematodes etc.) and crop management, development of appropriate farmer participatory vegetable IPM research programmes, participatory extension methods and suitable field and laboratory diagnosis methods of insect pests and diseases of selected vegetable crops.

Although offered and co-ordinated by ICIPE scientists, the course benefitted greatly from input by invited specialists within eastern Africa. This was indeed the first course of its kind in the region as it involved a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary training approach which was received with a lot of enthusiasm by the participants as well as resource personnel. Owing to the success of this first course, ICIPE is planning to organize similar courses in the near future.

The course was organized with grant support from the Netherlands through the DSO project `Human Resource Development for Science & Technological Capacity in Arthropod Science in Africa' No.KE/91/955.

Contact: Head, Capacity Building, ICIPE, PO Box 30772, Nairobi, Kenya
Fax: +254 2 860110/803360

 

A Parable from Nepal

Just how well communities worked together proved to be the crucial variable in the success or failure of a project for potato wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum) integrated management in the high hill country of Nepal.

Potato is the most important vegetable crop in Nepal, and ranks fourth as a food crop after rice, maize and wheat. It is grown throughout the country, but it is of particular significance in the higher regions, and it is the staple crop above 2000 m. The high hill pockets are also traditional areas of high-quality seed potato production for the rest of the country (supplying some 80% of its total needs), and this represents an important income source for farmers. However, with an average yield of only 13.54 t/ha, Nepal has a far lower productivity for this crop than many of its South Asian neighbours. Losses owing to pests and diseases are a major cause of low yields, with late blight (Phytophthora infestans), bacterial wilt and red ants (Dorylus orientalis) the three most important pests. Bacterial wilt was first identified in Nepal in the Kathmandu valley in 1966 from where it spread, at least partly through distribution of diseased planting material, until it now occurs over a large part of the eastern, central and western hills.

The Lumle Agricultural Research Centre (LARC) at Pokhara in Kaski has been studying the disease since 1987, and since 1990 has been developing IPM methods for its management. The prevalent race of bacterial blight in this area has been identified as bio-var II or race 3, a variant identified as particularly virulent by the International Potato Centre (CIP). A one-year village-based project for its management was implemented in two villages in Kaski in 1990, with striking success in one that followed the project through to the end. This led to a five-year collaborative project, which began in 1993, between LARC and Landusers' Perspective With Agricultural Research and Development (UPWARD) in the Philippines to try similar methods in two further villages.

Disease management tours that had been conducted since 1987 meant that farmers were educated to some degree in understanding bacterial wilt. In the new project, researchers now tried to mobilize farming communities. In visits to villages, they held discussions with farmers and village leaders, provided guidance for a village-based technician in bacterial wilt, and other activities were designed to help farmers diagnose bacterial wilt and to understand its economic importance and how it might be controlled.

The essential components of the control strategy were:

• Elimination of infected planting material. The use of farmers' own seed potatoes was prohibited. All stored [ware] potatoes were removed from the village and stores/storage materials disinfected.
• A three-year moratorium period with cereal crops grown in infected traditional growing areas. No other solanaceous crop was permitted during this period, but many new crops were explored.
• A clean-seed potato multiplication programme.
• Roguing plants from self-sown potatoes.
• Farmer education in causes, symptoms, disease cycle, and management methods of bacterial wilt.

The restriction on growing potatoes for three years was undoubtedly a real challenge to these high hill farmers, for whom potatoes are not only their staple but also a major source of income. Yet the nature of the disease and the objectives set out for the project were such that 100% participation was judged to be necessary for it to succeed. The project addressed the difficulty of imposing the draconian control measures by seeking mass consensus to begin and by unifying the farming community of each village through a Cropping System Improvement Committee (CSIC), which was formed to represent the different strata of political and social mores, wealth status and ethnicity. A mass meeting was held in each village at which the project implementation was endorsed, and the CSIC was empowered with both responsibilities and authority for enforcing rules and regulations in the project. Subsequent training, national-level workshops and in-country tours gave the CSIC members more experience of research and development activities related to potato in Nepal.

There was full endorsement of the project in both villages in the first year and, with what must have been a great deal of faith, farmers did not plant their staple food. What happened next proved to be very different in the two villages, with complete breakdown of the project occurring in one of them. Whilst this must have been a bitter disappointment to those who strove hard to make the project work, ironically, the very contrasting fortunes of the two villages may serve as a parable for future projects. The results are also a reminder of the importance of the human factor in agricultural research and development.

In Ulleri, differences, mostly inter-personal, grew and the necessary level of participation could not be sustained. The CSIC split into two groups and became less functional. Eventually it became incapable of enforcing the regulations, the moratorium on potato planting was broken and the project was abandoned. In 1997, wilting of potatoes was observed in many farmers' fields and incidence levels of up to 50% were recorded. Wilt incidence was even higher, however, at a non-participating village.

At Jhilibrang, the community remained united. A handful of households tried to break the moratorium on potato planting but this was resolved. In 1997, potatoes were grown again in accordance with the project design, and bacterial wilt symptoms were recorded only twice: in two small plots of land wilting was recorded in a local variety and NPI/T0012, possibly from imported, diseased seed. The same varieties in adjoining plots were unaffected. Potatoes from the affected land were all consumed, and the ground drenched with 5% formalin and covered with a plastic sheet for 72 h. The subsequent crop was free of bacterial wilt.

Other positive outcomes at Jhilibrang included the successful cultivation of two varieties of cold tolerant rice and fresh vegetables. Initially there were severe weed problems in rice crops. Manual weeding and butachlor were tried, but the efficacy of the herbicide was found to be very dependent on soil moisture. However, training in manual weeding and harrowing by experts from an upland rice cultivation area helped to reduce weeding costs. Rice cultivation has since become popular among the Jhilibrang villagers, who now produce their own minimum rice needs rather than bartering potatoes for it.

Management of disease free seed remained a concern. Potato seed stock needs to be replaced every one to five years, with three/four years the average time span in Jhilibrang, and the replacement stock needs to be free of disease. To circumvent the problem, the project was extended for an extra year until June 1998 so that farmers could be trained in technologies associated with disease-free seed production using mainly pre-basic seed and true potato seed as source seed material.

The LARC/UPWARD joint experience during this project, mirroring the experience of the previous one-year project, was that the overriding difficulty was in managing the communities. In view of the problems encountered, it is perhaps commendable that both projects sustained what proved to be the highly effective participation of one out of their two villages. LARC comment that future projects need to take account of the level of commitment required of the participants, and the need for support programmes to make participation both more attractive and more participatory.

Source: Ghimire, S.R.; Dhital, B.K. (1998) Community approach to the management of bacterial wilt of potato in the hills of Nepal: a project terminal report.
LARC Occasional Paper No. 98/1, 22 pp.
Lumle Agricultural Research Centre,
PO Box 1, Pokhara, Kaski District, Nepal
Fax: +977 61 22653