Farmer Communication & Action
Providing a menu of safe, accessible, cost-effective solutions as well as targeted knowledge and support to enable farmers to make informed IPM decisions.
Project Description
This project aims to empower farmers so that they can make informed decisions based on a choice of options and tools which are accessible, affordable, and effective at controlling FAW but which also increase resilience to other pests, diseases and threats. The focus of activities will be on developing comprehensive farmer training and communication resources, including access to digital IPM to drive improved practices in the field. Key questions we want to explore with farmers include:
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What resources do farmers need?
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In what ways can we better communicate?
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What are the ways farmers can improve practices in the field?
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What are the barriers to improving IPM?
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How can farmers be teachers?
Farmer Communication Workshop Series
More effective farmer communication is vital to driving long-term IPM for plant pest and disease control, including controlling fall armyworm. But communication is more than just “telling” farmers what they should do. Effective communication leads to an enhanced understanding amongst all participants, of the problem and the possible solutions, which in turn increases the likelihood of behavioural change when supported by the right incentives.
Over the next 6 months, we are running a farmer communication workshop series consisting of regional-level workshops, national-level discussions and the development of a publication which will bring together all the case studies, best practice and learnings gathered from across the series.
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Regional Workshops
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Part 1: Understanding Farmer Behaviour for Effective Communication and Action
Tuesday, 8 June 2021 (10 am Singapore time).
Watch the RECORDING here.
Download the PDF of the presentations
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Description: Understanding why farmers behave in certain ways is critical to informing how to best communicate and drive long-term sustainable change in farmer behaviour for improved IPM/FAW control.
Speakers:
1. Dr K L Heong, Distinguished Qiushi Chair Professor, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR CHINA, Former Principal Scientist, International Rice Research Institute, Philippines - Malaysia: Importance of policies, structural reforms and enhancing farmers’ ecological literacy. Experiences from rice.
2. Dr Y Andy Trisyono, Professor, UGM: Research in Indonesia – Understanding Farmer Behaviour Towards FAW Control.
3. Delisa Jiang, CropLife Asia, Exploring behavioural science approaches for farmer communication: A case study of farmer PPE uptake in India
4. Philipe Bujold, Center for Behavior & the Environment: Understanding farmer behaviour - a behavioural scientist perspective
Part 2: Case studies of Farmer Communication
Tuesday 27 July 2021 (10 am Singapore time)
Watch the RECORDING here
Download the PDF of the presentations
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Description: Understanding the different ways to communicate more effectively to farmers drawing on successful approaches in the field.
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Questions: What are the different modes of communication that can be used to reach out to farmers? What are examples of effective communication strategies that have worked in ASEAN? In other regions? On IPM? Digital, Radio, Print, FFS/ToT? How can farmer-to-farmer communication be better utilised?
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Speakers:
1. Dr Ariel BenYishay /Dr Ahmed Mushfiq Mubarak, William and Mary University, Yale University
Communicating with Farmers through Social Networks
2. Gelsey Bennett, Digital Green: Connecting with farmers through the use of video and multimedia
3. Siddharth Surana, AgriCentral, Olam: Digital Applications: The AgriCentral Experience
4. Rogelio P. Matalang, Philippine Federation of Rural Broadcasters: Connecting with farmers through radio
5. Dr Dannie Romney, CABI: Hybrid approaches to farmer communication
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Part 3A: Pesticide Behaviour, Decision-making & Communication
Tuesday 7 September 2021 (10 am Singapore time)
Watch the RECORDING here
Download the PDF of the presentations
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Description: Uncovering behaviour around the purchase and use of pesticides is critical to driving responsible pesticide use.
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Questions: How are farmers making decisions about the use of pesticides? When do they make decisions? What is communicated at the point of sale? How is external communication able to influence decision-making? How can we communicate better regarding pesticide use?
Speakers:
1. Aditi Mankad, CSIRO Land & Water Australia
Understanding farmers' decision-making and behaviour around pesticides and crop protection
2. Srinivasan Ramasamy, World Vegetable Center
Farmers' knowledge, attitudes, and practices on synthetic pesticide use in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos
3. Joseph Goeb, Michigan State University
Experience in developing pesticide education and training programmes: Zambia, Myanmar
4. Yunita Triwardani Winarto, Universitas Indonesia
Understanding farmer pesticide behaviour in Java, Indonesia
5. Seng Kim Hian, iDE Cambodia
Pesticide education and training programmes: Cambodia
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Part 3B: Pesticide Behaviour, Decision-making & Communication
Thursday 21 October 2021 (3 pm Singapore time)
Watch the RECORDING here.
Download the PDF of the presentations (coming soon)
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Description: Uncovering behaviour around the purchase and use of pesticides is critical to driving responsible pesticide use.
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Questions: How are farmers making decisions about the use of pesticides? Do farmers use newer less toxic pesticides - if they cost more? What are the factors that drive farmer behaviour around pesticides? What are the studies being planned in the region to better understand farmer behaviour and pesticide use? What projects are needed to understand better the opportunities to drive more responsible pesticide use across Southeast Asia? What drives smallholder farmer decision-making around pesticides in China?
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Speakers:
1. Lucy Carter, CSIRO Australia.
Understanding agrichemical use in SE Asian agriculture: Lao PDR and Viet Nam
2. Yingxue Ren, TianGong University, China
A review: Factors influencing Chinese farmers’ proper pesticide application
3. Eve Bureau-Point, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
The social construction of the pesticides’ problems in Cambodia
4. Putra Andika, Project assistant of the ASEAN Action Plan.
Investigating financial factors impacting on the choice of pesticides - Indonesia
5. Delisa Jiang, Director of Sustainability and Advocacy at CropLife Asia
Future studies: Pesticides and Farmer Behaviour: Viet Nam
6. Dr David Hughes, Swansea University, United Kingdom
Future Studies: Pesticides use and health impacts on farmers in Thailand, Vietnam, and Lao PDR: Protocol for a survey of knowledge, behaviours and blood acetylcholinesterase concentrations
7. Errol Perera, Consultant to the ASEAN Secretariat
Future studies: ASEAN agrochemical stocktaking project
8. Thomas Jaekel, CIM/GIZ
Closing Thoughts: The Big Picture
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Resources shared as part of this session:
FAO (2013) Empowering Farmers to Reduce Pesticide Risks (Cambodia/Viet Nam)
World Bank (2018) The Challenge of Agricultural Pollution : Evidence from China, Vietnam, and the Philippines
Lundgren J., & Fausti S., (2015) Trading biodiversity for pest problems. Science Advances. 31 Jul Vol 1, Issue 6.
Schulz et al (2021) Applied pesticide toxicity shifts toward plants and invertebrates, even in GM crops. ​SCIENCE, Vol 372, Issue 6537, pp. 81-84
Yu Yang Chang, Ji Tan and Jiunn Luh Tan (2021) Knowledge and Attitude of Malaysian Fruit Growers on Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Yingxuan Pan, Yingxue Ren, Pieternel A. Luning (2021) Factors influencing Chinese farmers’ proper pesticide application in agricultural products – A review
Part 4: Case-Studies
Tuesday 23 November (10 am Singapore time)
Watch the RECORDING here.
Download the PDF of the presentations (coming soon)
Description: Case-studies: Drawing on lessons learnt to help understand farmer behaviour and improve communication.
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1. Brian Cook, University of Melbourne
How powerful are social relations in driving farmer adoption of new technologies and practices?
2. Laura Kwong, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
What factors can drive behavioural change in rural communities?
3. Rachana Devkota, University of Ottawa
How do you design effective farmer pictorial education resources?
4. Fay Rola-Rubzen, Centre for Agricultural Economics and Development, University of Western Australia
Why do some farmers adopt new technologies, whereas others don't? - Behavioural insights from South Asia
5. Rica Joy Flor, IRRI
How can we catalyze the adoption of farmer best management practices at scale?
Further Resources
#1
Framework for Strategic Communication during Pest Outbreaks: Learning from Fall Armyworm.
This CABI-developed Framework is the result of a consultative process convened by CABI in 2018 in Africa that brought together communication and knowledge management stakeholders with key agricultural government representatives. The Framework provides a set of guiding principles and tools to assist governments with the production of Country-Level Communication Strategies for FAW and other major pests. Part 3 provides communication guidance tools and templates.
#2
Building a resource-base of communication materials
Do you have examples of communications for farmers on FAW control or IPM in general? We want to build a resource base of different communications (posters, videos, online tools, recordings, etc) to share across the community. We are also interested in your thoughts on successful ways to develop farmer-led communications.
