Changes in rice farmers’ pest management in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Abstract Between 1992 and 1997, two insecticide reduction interventions were introduced to farmers in the Mekong Delta, the media campaign to motivate farmers to experiment whether early season spraying for leaf folders was necessary and the farmer field schools (FFS). The media campaign reached about 92% of the 2.3 million farmer households in the Mekong while the FFS trained about 108,000 farmers or 4.3%. Farmers’ insecticide use, early season sprayings and pest management beliefs reduced markedly over the 5-year period. Spray frequencies changed from 3.4 to 1.0 sprays per season, a reduction of 70%. Less farmers sprayed in the seedling, tillering and booting stages changing from 18, 65 and 45%, respectively to 1, 12 and 22%, respectively. Changes in farmers’ beliefs were significant, with the belief index reducing from 11 to 6.7. There were significant differences between farmers reached by media and trained by FFS, farmers reached only by the media, and those not reached by either intervention. Spray frequencies were 0.5, 1.2 and 2.1, respectively and similar differences in early season spraying and beliefs were observed. It is evident that the two interventions, media and FFS, played complementary roles in significantly changing farmers’ beliefs and insecticide use in the Mekong Delta.