Waging wars on crop pests and diseases
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” –Sun Tzu Y experience, farmers know that major outbreaks of pests and diseases are infrequent.
The question is when these outbreaks occur do the farmers and stakeholders know what to do? Otherwise, the farmers lose their crop.
When local farmers lose their crop for the current season, they lose their livelihood and are forced to incur additional debts to start all over again.
This need not happen. A whole field crop may not necessarily be damaged if the farmer and crop technicians were vigilant in their surveillance of the occurrence of pests and diseases. It is also during pests and disease outbreak situations that farmers are forced to use pesticides fueling continued concern on food safety and abuse of the environment.
The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program was developed to aid farmers in making economically and environmentally responsible decisions on the use of pesticides when necessary. In most cases, the program would advise farmers not to use pesticides – “it is not even necessary.”
Pest monitoring, also known as field scouting is a cornerstone of any effective IPM program. It begins with the correct identification of a pest, according to Ulysses G. Duque, Agricultural Center Chief ll at the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), San Andres St., Malate, Manila.
“Farmers and pest scouts must know and identify their enemies (referring to field crop pests) properly to be able to control and manage the damage they inflict on their plants,” he added.
Duque was part of a team of experts invited by the Department of Agriculture-Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-CAR) to train and introduce local agricultural technicians and pest control officers to a new government pest surveillance research project called “Pests Risks Identification and
BManagement (PRIME).
PRIME is currently being implemented on rice by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and its attached agencies: Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR); Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI); and Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice). The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and other partner institutions are part of the team.
The other and earlier projects on rice pests and diseases identification, control and management include the Surveillance and Early Warning System for Masagana (1985 edition). This was later updated into a Philippine Pest Surveillance and Early Warning System on Rice (2017 edition) by the BPI.
The primary objective of any public invested research and development project is to transfer technology and tools to the major stakeholders of farming, more importantly, the farmers to use, manage, and enhance the practice of their professions.
In the two days that I joined and participated in the PRIME lectures and field activities in Tabuk City, Kalinga Province, last February 20-21, it was apparent how expertise evolved over the years on pest surveillance, monitoring, and risk management that are integrated into a system that stakeholders can use to their benefit and that of the consumers of agricultural products. It does take time and effort to learn the old techniques and be updated with the new strategies and approaches.
For example, during the lecture on injuries caused by insects, by Mr. Ricardo Marquez, Senior Science Research Specialist at Philrice, explained that scouts or those tasked to monitor the pests of crops can easily see what they are looking for with a combination of direct recognition, knowing something about the biology and habits of the pests, and identifying injury symptoms on the plant caused by a pest. In time, “you must learn to create your story about a certain pest that would make you readily recognize it and understand its behavior,” he said.
Knowing and understanding a pest prevents