Abstract
Even though both empirical and field evidence hail integrated pest management (IPM) as promising techniques for cost-effective and environment friendly control of agricultural pests, coffee farmers still rely on pesticides. A post coffee stem borer IPM training survey of 126 farmers reveals that farmers’ attitudes toward pesticides is a major constraint to IPM use. Farmers perceived that pesticide use simplifies pest management, produces higher yields and good quality coffee appealing to the buyers. On this basis, they mainly used pesticides compared to IPM practices for Coffee Stem Borer (CSB) pest management. Second, the CSB IPM practices are less appealing because of the high labor requirements and costly nature and therefore a constraint especially to women and the elderly. Consequently, increasing IPM practices uptake requires a deliberate and collective effort of key coffee sector stakeholders to design and implement educational programs aimed at judicious application of pesticides. After that, a continuous testing of more IPM techniques coupled with encouraging farmers to adapt and make modifications on the current practices can potentially reduce pesticide use.
Highlights
In the era of modern agriculture, crop protection including that of coffee has been a center of focus in the recent years
Much as the level of knowledge of pesticides of the stakeholders is vital for providing sound strategies for reducing environmental and health risks, the study findings indicating that knowledge level are moderate among farmers—regardless of gender
Despite farmers’ awareness of the benefits of the integrated pest management (IPM) package as compared to pesticides, they rely on pesticides as the main means to Coffee Stem Borer (CSB) pest control
Summary
In the era of modern agriculture, crop protection including that of coffee has been a center of focus in the recent years. Crop protection involves selecting and applying context-specific crop pest solutions by farmers to obtain high yields. To successfully select and apply appropriate pest control methods, farmers must learn to develop their skills and knowledge on the relevant pest control methods. The knowledge obtained in turn shapes farmers attitudes and practices regarding pest control method selection and use. Recent evidence suggests that farmers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices influence their choice of pesticides over different methods in developing countries (Atreya, Johnsen, & Sitaula, 2012; Khan & Damalas, 2015a). Farmers have to choose either pesticides or integrated pest management (IPM) techniques as their pest control methods
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