Changing farmer behaviour

Promoting the responsible use of crop protection products across the Asia Pacific.

In Asia, progress is being made to improve the responsible use of crop protection products or pesticides. But while immense progress is being made to ensure farmers use products responsibly there is still plenty of work to be done.

In the heart of Southeast Asia, Thailand is an excellent example of what can be achieved when different organisations come together for the common good of raising safety standards among farmers.

It was revealed in a survey that Thailand had a particular challenge with the re-use of empty containers among farmers, along with a need for big improvements to the premises of local formulators and retailers..

Thailand presented a tough challenge given its fragmented agricultural community. If a CropLife stewardship campaign was to succeed in improving standards it would need buy-in from strategic partners such as the government, retailers and the nation’s farmers.

And this is exactly what happened. Senior government officials became involved along with strong support from the Royal Thai projects to get the campaign’s objectives across, improve safety levels while improving crop production methods.

Thailand’s story highlights how vitally important it is to build partnerships with national and local governments, NGOs and other organisations if an initiative aimed at educating farmers is going to succeed.

When everyone is on the same page, positive progress can be achieved. But it’s still a monumental task to get all different parties involved and moving in the same direction. Despite the coordination challenges, the results speak for themselves.

Senior government officials recognised that retailer training was the best way to get safety messages across to farmers and scored big wins in raising awareness. And the government helped by producing bright and colourful comics and notebooks which conveyed safety messages in a fun and entertaining way.

As a result, farmer training methods have improved dramatically and pesticides are now used in a much more responsible manner.

However, the industry cannot afford to rest on the laurels despite having seen some impressive improvements in Thailand and across the region. Training needs to be on-going and practices need to be constantly monitored to make sure standards are maintained. Effectively, behaviours have to change and that takes time to embed.

Training programmes have proved themselves to be a valuable tool in responsible use campaigns. They encourage participation which is arguably the best way to learn, leading to behavioural change. They are also useful when involving other stakeholders to help increase the effectiveness and outreach of any campaign.

While Asia is behind the curve compared with some regions, there are some exciting programmes currently taking place across Asia, including projects in Malaysia and India, designed to further improve the responsible use of crop protection products. .

They are part of CropLife Asia’s Responsible Use Initiatives which reach out to millions of farmers every year via a host of different media. Programmes have been running for more than 15 years and new lessons are learned all the time on the most effective way to engage the key stakeholders.

Training the trainers is a cornerstone of these programmes and will continue to be part of our sustained efforts to improve responsible use of pesticides across the region, and the world.

Matt Kovac is Director of Advocacy at CropLife Asia based in Singapore.