Strengthening the Farmers’ Field Schools
Every year, the government allocates a big part of the national budget for education to sustain the schooling of millions of Filipinos. But there’s another form of schooling that the government should sustain and strengthen to help farmers increase their income, reduce production cost, and safeguard health and environment: the Integrated Pest Management-Farmers’ Field School (IPM-FFS).
Modeled after the Indonesian Integrated Pest Management, the IPM-FFS is an extension approach developed by the Highland Agricultural Development Project (HADP) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to train farmers on the judicious use of chemical farm inputs, and enhance- their management skills and knowledge in farming.
It was first launched in Atok, Benguet in 1992 in response to the cyanide scare or “green tide.” That time, farmers were “cocktailing” insecticides and were using cyanide-based compounds to control the severe infestation of diamond back moth (DBM), the worst insect pest infesting cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables. Dr. Cameron P. Odsey, project director of DA’s Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resources Management (CHARM) Project, said that the IPM-FFS is largely credited for the mobilization of key stakeholders of the vegetable industry for the control of DBM infestation on cabbage crops in the Cordillera.
