Moving On: Farmer Education in Integrated Insect Pest and Disease Management

This chapter explores intensive hands-on occupational education for farmers in selected European, African, Latin American countries and in south India. An Indian case study of Farmer Field Schools for Integrated Pest and Production Management (IPPM) to ensure food security and livelihood improvement is presented, to introduce discussion of the role of IPPM beyond improving agriculture productivity. Does it enable farmers to adopt practices that move food and farming systems toward a low carbon economy? Does it help mitigate the effects of climate change? Does it help small farmers reach the combined goals of sustainability and development? India is experiencing unprecedented economic growth, based primarily on service sector development, yet income inequalities are widening and the number of poor – 300–400 million living mainly in rural areas – is not decreasing as a consequence of a deepening agrarian crisis. Agriculture for marginal farmers provides the major part of their family’s nutritional requirements; however, it is no longer the primary source of income, neither does it ensure food security. Climatic change effects, with higher temperatures and less rainfall, have reduced further the viability of farming in drought-prone areas. The tendency is for millions of poor farmers to leave agriculture, aspiring to join the service sector but more commonly ending up among the urban destitute. The prospect for agriculture in India is thought to lie in a mix of high science applied in favourable areas to sustain the grain, legume, and oil seed output needed for basic food security; for high value crops for the rising domestic consumer and export markets; expanded investment in market-led enterprise development and skills training in rural areas; and renewed attention to farm-based livelihoods and agro-ecosystem functioning, especially in rainfed farming. This chapter addresses livelihoods and agro-ecosystem functioning, and specifically the role of IPPM as a means for strengthening agro-ecosystem resilience in the face of environmental change