Impact of Farmer Field School Training on Acquisition of Integrated Pest Management Knowledge by Farmers

The FAO-EU-ADB funded National Integrated Pest Management Programme (NatIPM) for Cotton in Pakistan during 2001-2004 and introduced new extension training methodology called Farmer Field School (FFS). Basic principle of FFS training was to enable farmers to be self sufficient, using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices that are agro-ecosystem friendly. To assess the impact of this new FFS training model in connection to agro-ecological sound IPM practices with special reference to cotton, study was conducted in four districts of Sindh province of Pakistan. The sample size comprised of 432 farmers in total, selecting 108 farmers from each district. The results of this study indicated that FFS was a favorable process in increasing farmers’ IPM knowledge regarding use of pesticides, nutrient management and their decision making process with regard to the agro-ecological sound farming. It appears that effects of training exist, if not increased even after the five years after the termination of the programme.