Caption
Women do not go out fishing as much as the men, they are more occupied with the weaving of the mats used in the cages and traps. - - Participatory Natural Resources Management in the Tonle Sap: GCP/CMB/002/BEL. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is used by farmers to manage their rice crop without resorting to prescriptive solutions such as pesticides. Farmers are trained in IPM by an approach that allows them to discover for themselves how their decisions affect the production of their rice, the ecology of the rice field, and management techniques they can use to promote a healthy crop. The rice field is used as the classroom where farmers and trained IPM facilitators meet on a weekly basis throughout the growing cycle of the crop, in what is called a Farmer Field School. A major focus of this season-long training is the dynamic relationship that exists between predatory insects and potentially harmful insects. A major result of this work is the realization by farmers that they do not require large amounts of "modern" inputs, particularly pesticides, to grow their rice and control insects. With this realization comes a reduced demand for pesticides, which dramatically reduces the incidence of pesticide-induced pest outbreaks, as well as improving the environment and public health. IPM Farmer Field Schools make the farmer the expert.