Experiences in Adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Strategies in Zanzibar

Abstract

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) was adopted by Plant Protection Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Zanzibar to improve agricultural production on major crops (rice, banana, cassava and vegetables) at small scale farming system. The multi-disciplinary group of IPM facilitators created awareness to farmers by conducting seminars, workshops and discussions. The IPM groups were formed through Participatory Rapid Rural Appraisal (PRRA). PRRA was also used to identify problems and training needs. Farmer field School approach was introduced using the adaptation of the methodology adapted from South East Asian Ecosystem. Farmers were empowered on environmentally sound practices such as disease free planting materials certified seeds, botanical control, etc. On-farm trials within Participatory Action Research (PAR) was also conducted by participatory technology development method. A total of 52 farmers’ groups involving 1,038 farmers (549 males and 489 females) have been trained. There was a yield increase for all the crops with the adoption of IPM practice, irrigated rice was from 2.2-4.4 tons/ha, rainfed rice 2.3-3.4 tons/ha, tomato 9.5 - 33.7 tons/ha, amaranthus 4.2-11.7 tons/ha , bananas 11.3-17.6 tons/ha, and cassava 15.9-33.6 tons/ha. The results had a good impact in terms of adoption of technologies by the IPPM farmers and the neighboring farmers.

Keywords: Agro Eco-System, Food Security, Mono-Crop, Pest Management