NAREI pushes for greater IPM practices by farmers to reduce incidences of crop loss.

AGRICULTURAL activities remain highly sensitive to climate change, largely because they depend on biodiversity and environmental conditions. In fact, its production is subjected to many uncertainties: weather, market development and pest and disease are some of the uncertainties faced by farmers countrywide. As such, it is necessary for farmers to effectively manage risks in farms as part of the general management of farming. However, you are not in this alone.

At the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), researchers continue to ‘up the ante’ concerning Pest and Disease Management through a holistic approach of Pest and Disease Management practices. To further support this, NAREI developed an IPM Strategy in 2017 which has been focusing solely on reducing pest and disease attacks from the inception of planting. This has resulted in a significant reduction in pest attacks on farms, allowing for an increase in production and export with an increase in the production of non-traditional crops alone for 2019.

Chief Executive Officer of NAREI, Dr. Oudho Homenauth, reminding farmers of the importance of managing pest and disease attacks, said that for this to work special emphasis must be placed on the methods used from the inception of planting. In addition to this, biological control (using biological pesticides or pest predators), use of resistant crop varieties; cultural control (such as weeding, tilling, crop-spacing); and selective use of chemicals are methods used by NAREI’s extension officers.

“Plants are subjected to various attacks of pest and diseases from time to time; however, treatment of farms and fields at an early stage and monitoring of farms at all stages is necessary. The IPM Strategy development by our researchers focuses on several key stages such as sanitisation and monitoring of plants,” Dr. Homenauth said.

In addition to this, intercropping is another avenue to not only prevent pest and disease attack, but to ensure the viability of the soil and to guarantee an increase in productivity.

This method of agricultural extension offered by NAREI allows farmers to be equipped with the skills to also learn for themselves. Farmers are taught how to make an analysis of their farms and to observe pest-predator relationship. The extension officers at NAREI also experiment with farmers to find solutions to problems, based on their better understanding of the ecological processes taking place at the field level. This approach is taken because IPM is not a fixed set of rules that farmers can apply to pest problems.

Over the last five years, the Ministry of Agriculture has recorded a 15 per cent reduction in pest and disease attacks on farmers’ fields, due to the stringent approach taken to promote and implement IPM practices countrywide. Solutions will vary according to each situation, and finding the right solution depends on a farmer’s skill in recognising the problem, understanding its causes and devising an appropriate remedy. Developing the skills and knowledge to use IMP effectively depends on training and therefore farmers must work together with NAREI’s Extension Officer. NAREI has stationed extension officers in each region of Guyana to assist farmers in all crop-related issues. In addition to this, the Ministry of Agriculture has developed a Farmers’ Manual and is currently producing the second edition of this publication. The manual is equipped with pest and disease identification and management techniques which farmers can utilise in any given situation.