Use of Communication Media in Changing Rice Farmers’ Pest Management 249mation from the media to more than ten persons (33 per cent), whereas most said
that they had spoken to five or less persons (44 per cent). The most common situ-
ations where the information was discussed were in the field (36 per cent), in the
coffee shops (24 per cent) and at dinner parties (24 per cent).
The media approach in the project sites in Long An province stimulated other
provincial governments in the Mekong Delta to launch their own programmes
using the approach. Between September 1994 and March 1997, 15 provincial
governments initiated their own programmes, spending about US$151,000, dis-
tributed 340,000 leaflets, 35,000 posters, organized 1390 demonstration plots and
broadcast the radio drama about 1550 times. In addition, a total of 356,600 farm-
ers were invited to participate in testing whether early season spraying for leaf
folder control was necessary.
In 1996, a post-test survey of 1499 farmers in the 12 districts of Long An
province, besides the study sites, was conducted by the Provincial Plant Protection
Department to evaluate the spread effect. About 82 per cent of the 1449 farmers
interviewed said that they had heard about the heuristic, and 64 per cent said that
they had tried it. Of those who tried, 77 per cent said they had stopped spraying
in the first 40 DAS. The spray frequency (Figure 12.3) showed that about 20 per
cent of the farmers had not applied any insecticides, and most farmers (59 per
cent) applied one or two sprays each season (average 1.6). About 37 per cent of the
farmers applied their first sprays in the first four weeks, 50 per cent in the second
Figure 12.3 Insecticide spray frequencies of rice farmers in 12 districts in Long An
province in September 1996, n = 1449