Use of Communication Media in Changing Rice Farmers’ Pest Management 243
What farmers learnt from the media materials
In the post-test, we used an open-ended question to assess what farmers learnt
from the three media materials. Farmers learnt that there was no need for insec-
ticide spraying against the leaf folder in the first 40 DAS (69 per cent), that
avoiding the use of insecticide during this period saves money and labour (30
per cent), that spraying early in the season is detrimental to natural enemies (20
per cent), how to conduct an experiment (14 per cent), that leaf folder damage
during the early growth stages do not reduce yields as crops recover (11 per
cent), that insecticide spraying can be detrimental to one’s health (13 per cent)
and that insecticides pollutes environment (6 per cent). When they obtained the
information from the media, about 56 per cent of the farmers said that they
conducted the experiment, 15 per cent said that they stopped spraying for leaf
folders in the first 40 DAS, and 15 per cent said that they did not do anything
about it. The main reasons provided for not responding were that they were wor-
ried about pest attacks when they did not spray (34 per cent), afraid of yield loss
(19 per cent), did not believe in the message content (11 per cent), had no time
to experiment (8 per cent) and about 6 per cent did not understand the informa-
tion.
Changes in farmers’ insecticide use patterns
Changes in farmers’ insecticide use over the 31-month period are shown in Table 12.2
and Figure 12.1. The mean number of sprays that farmers applied declined from
3.35 per farmer to 1.56 18 months after distribution. There was a slight increase
to 1.76, although not significant, a year later. The mean number of insecticide
sprays by farmers in the 12 districts outside the study sites in 1996 was 1.58, which
was not significantly different from the study sites. The proportion of farmers who
Table 12.2 Changes in farmers’ insecticide use
In study sites, Tan Tru and Tan Thanh
Pretest Post-tests
August 1994 February 1996 March 1997 In 12 districts
Number of farmers
interviewed
633 452 628 1449
Total number of
insecticide sprays applied
2123 700 1103 2286
Mean number per farmer 3.35 1.56 1.76 1.58
SD 1.75 1.20 1.35 1.26
Range 0–11 0–8 0–9 0–10
Percentage of farmers not
using insecticides
1.1 20.2 31.7 20.4