Impact evaluation of rice integrated pest management dissemination programs on adoption and pesticide use in Punjab, India

In the mid-1990s, work on development, validation, and dissemination of integrated pest management (IPM) technologies was intensified with the adoption of the farmer field school (FFS) model for implementation. Besides FFS extension, under different technology missions of government and private sector funded projects, many IPM programs to educate farmers have been implemented in India; including the most agriculturally advance Punjab state. To understand the long-term impact of IPM dissemination programs on cleaner rice production, we conducted a field study. Contrary to our hypotheses, not only insecticide and fungicide use is the dominant practice of insect pests and disease control, but their use has also increased since the mid-1990s in rice crop despite the high adoption of non-pesticide IPM practices and resistant varieties. There was only a 3% difference in pesticide active ingredients applied by IPM trained and other farmers. But the mean number of pesticide applications in the case of IPM was 14.4% higher than non-IPM, and the difference was significant, resulting in a 6.7% higher field use environmental impact of pesticide use. The contribution of probable/ possible carcinogenic pesticides to the total pesticide use was about 20%. Our study provides empirical evidence that despite the positive impact on the wide adoption of cultural IPM practices and resistant varieties, the positive impact on pesticide reduction is short-lived. Pesticide use increases after the withdrawal of IPM program interventions. The pesticide industry’s sustained outreach program was the major contributor to the farmers’ pesticide use decisions.