ADOPTION OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM) TECHNOLOGY IN A RICE

Abstract

Sustainable agriculture and food security are two main issues in agricultural development in developing countries including Thailand. As a developing country, pesticide consumption as agricultural input in Thailand is high and tends to increase annually. Therefore, adoption of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) technology as the advanced technology for sustainable agriculture is tremendously important. Nonetheless, there are many factors that can affect the decision making of farmers to adopt or not to adopt IPM technologies, as the IPM technologies are relatively new, and therefore they are not clearly identified. A purposive sampling technique were used to select samples in this study including the progressive farmer, an extension officer, and stakeholders. Descriptive quantitative analysis was used to examine and analyze ecological condition, personal background, factors affecting adoption of IPM, and rate of KAP (knowledge, attitude, and practice) of IPM. The findings shows that the progressive farmer who has adopted the IPM technology for 6 (six) years, has high capability, acceptability, and practicality towards IPM technology model. Five items of the IPM technology including prevention, identification, monitoring, pest control action, and evaluation are practically 90 percent adopted. The only aspects not adopted by the farmers were those related to the use of chemical pesticides. Factor affecting adoption of IPM technology includes personal background, the use of inputs, physical factors, biological factors, social factors, economic factors, institutional factors, and psychological factors. Biological and institutional factors were found to be the most important factors influencing farmers' decision to adopt. While the main constraints in the IPM adoption including complexity of IPM technology, weak perception of IPM technology, labor intensive, easy access of pesticide, and lack awareness of pollution, the most important constraints related to the IPM adoption was the complexity of the technology.