The integrated pest management (IPM) programmes run by the FAO seek to train farmers on how to take independent, well-informed crop production and management decisions, achieved primarily through participatory, season-long field schools. This study examines the social impact of IPM field schools in Mali during the 1999-2000 seasons, as well as considering their influence on improving technical knowledge, changing farming attitudes and behaviour and in simulating increased collective self-help action.

As food demand has grown worldwide, agricultural production has intensified with a concomitant expansion in pesticide use. Concerns over pesticide-induced health and environmental problems, increased pest resistance to pesticides, and continued losses due to pests, have stimulated the search for alternative pest management solutions. As a result integrated pest management (IPM) approaches have been developed and applied that rely on genetic, cultural, biological and information-intensive pest management alternatives. This book presents and critiques the participatory approaches that can be used to globalize IPM. It describes the development, deployment, and evaluation of participatory IPM. All the chapters include perspectives from both the US and developing country scientists who are on the front lines of IPM generation and diffusion. The book is unique amongst IPM books in that it stresses policy analysis, social and economic impact assessment, multidisciplinary field research and technology transfer mechanisms.

This important book provides a practical guide to the principles and practice of developing an integrated pest management (IPM) programme. Integrated Pest Management answers the question `how do you devise, develop and implement a practical IPM system which will fully meet the real needs of farmers?'. The term `pest' in this book is used in its broadest sense and includes insects, pathogens, weeds, nematodes, etc. The book commences by outlining the basic principles which underlie pest control (crop husbandry, socio-economics, population ecology and population genetics) and reviews the control mesures available and their use in IPM systems. Subsequent chapters cover the techniques and approaches used in defining a pest problem, programme planning and management, systems analysis, experimental paradigms and implementation of IPM systems. The final seciton of the book contains four chapters giving examples of IPM in different cropping systems, contributed by invited specialists and outlining four different perspectives. Integrated Pest Management will be of great use to agricultural and plant scientists, entomologists, aracologists and nematologists and all those studying crop protection, particularly at MSc level and above. It will be particularly useful for, and should find a place on the shelves of all personnel within the agrochemical industry, universities and research establishments working in this subject area and as a reference in libraries for students and professionals alike.