Assessing the impact of integrated pest management farmer field schools (IPM-FFSs) on acquisition of farmers' knowledge regarding use of pesticide, nutrient management and confidence in decision making process

To encourage the environmentally friendly farming practices the National Integrated Pest Management Programme (Nat-IPM) for cotton was launched in Sindh province, Pakistan during 2001 to 2004, which sought to empower the farmer's community to take wise decisions at the field and new training methodology called Farmer Field School (FFS) was introduced. Integrated Pest Management Farmer Field School (IPM-FFS) training emphasized that the crops should be healthier with least use of pesticides which have bad impact on the nature and encouraged to the natural pest mechanism. The basic principle behind this new extension IPM-FFS training method was to enable farmers to be self sufficient, using efficient cultivation techniques and that are eco-friendly. To assess the impact of this new FFS training model in connection to agro-ecological sound IPM practices with special reference to cotton, study was conducted in four districts of Sindh province. The sample size comprised of 432 farmers in total, selecting 144 farmers from each category (Trained, Exposed and Controlled) and 108 farmers from each district (Hyderabad, Tando Allahyar, Matiari and Mirpurkhas). The results indicated that IPM-FFSs increased farmers' knowledge regarding use of pesticides, nutrient management and their confidence on decision making process regarding agro-eco-friendly farming.