Scaling out integrated pest management with bean growers: Some experiences from Eastern and Southern Africa

Integrated pest management (IPM) is a sound approach for dealing with pest problems. It contributes to the reduction of pest damage, lowers costs of plant protection, and reduces or avoids undesirable side effects caused by pesticides, while preserving the production environment from contamination. However, IPM strategies tend to be tailored to local conditions, and technologically sound and effective IPM strategies are not easily transferred across different production systems. This is often because site-specific agro-ecological and socioeconomic conditions often determine what is best at one place (Van Huis, 1997). To improve upon this, several concepts on farmer involvement in technology generation and diffusion have been proposed and tried. The generation of IPM technology is moving from the approach of research station trials, and subsequent transfer of results by the extension system, to one of different levels of farmer participation to ensure greater suitability of the technology to farmers’ production circumstances and adoption. The approach also helps reach more farmers with relevant and new technologies more quickly.