Integrated pest management provides a
vital contribution to sustainable agriculture. During the last forty years,
researchers working with a wide range of crops around the world dispelled doubts
about the technical feasibility of IPM. In the 1980s new approaches based on
changing the relationships among farmers, extension workers and
researchers-and recognising farmers as experts-have demonstrated successful
implementation of IPM on a major scale. These approaches require new forms of
support from local and national governments, NGOs and development agencies.The Global IPM Facility has been established as a joint endeavour of FAO, UNDP, UNEP, the World Bank and CABI, and seeks to build on the successful experience of the last decade and help a larger number of farmers and governments to make a sustainable choice.
There is no blueprint for IPM programmes. But experience has shown that a successful programme requires certain ingredients: recognition that farmers are the primary decision-makers in any crop production system; that farmers' decisions are influenced by the policy environment and they are more likely to choose sustainable agricultural practices when not encouraged-by subsidies or government programmes-to make unnecessary use of pesticides. To help governments, the Facility offers, among other support: