Comment aider les paysans à prendre en charge la protection phytosanitaire de leurs parcelles de coton

From LEC to LOIC: helping farmers take responsibility for pest management in their own cotton plots. The launch of cotton production in West and Central Africa has gone hand-in-hand with the provision of a technological package to farmers, including the insecticides required for crop protection on a calendar basis. To reduce the costs of crop protection, the national research services (IRAD), supported by CIRAD, have proposed a new approach to pest management, by introducing the threshold concept using 'targeted staggered control' (LEC). Although farmers in the cotton-producing areas of Cameroon have widely adopted this approach (nearly 80 000 ha), the conventional calendar-based programme has gradually replaced LEC. During the 2006 cotton season, an innovative approach to pest control, known as the "Sequential plan for individual decision" (SPID = LOIC), was proposed to farmers. This time, insecticide applications were applied only when the number of bollworm larvae observed exceeded a predefined action threshold. The first two campaigns, involving five and then 15 villages, demonstrated the value of this method in terms of treatment efficacy, seed-cotton yield, income and adoption by farmers. In 2008, a method aimed at disseminating the innovation on a larger scale was tested in 46 villages. It relied on the technical staff from SODECOTON who, after being trained by IRAD, provided, supervised and monitored training sessions for planters as monitoring officers and managers. The results, in terms of seed-cotton yield and income were similar to previous years. Users successfully learned the method through training sessions. However, changes to the management of inputs and spray equipment is required if this method is to be disseminated more widely.