TY - JOUR
T1 - Obstacles to integrated pest management adoption in developing countries
AU - Parsa, Soroush
AU - Morse, Stephen
AU - Bonifacio, Alejandro
AU - Chancellor, Timothy C.B.
AU - Condori, Bruno
AU - Crespo-Pérez, Verónica
AU - Hobbs, Shaun L.A.
AU - Kroschel, Jürgen
AU - Ba, Malick N.
AU - Rebaudo, François
AU - Sherwood, Stephen G.
AU - Vanek, Steven J.
AU - Faye, Emile
AU - Herrera, Mario A.
AU - Dangles, Olivier
PY - 2014/3/11
Y1 - 2014/3/11
N2 - Despite its theoretical prominence and sound principles, integrated pest management (IPM) continues to suffer from anemic adoption rates in developing countries. To shed light on the reasons, we surveyed the opinions of a large and diverse pool of IPM professionals and practitioners from 96 countries by using structured conceptmapping. The first phase of thismethod elicited 413 open-ended responses on perceived obstacles to IPM. Analysis of responses revealed 51 unique statements on obstacles, the most frequent of which was "insufficient training and technical support to farmers." Cluster analyses, based on participant opinions, grouped these unique statements into six themes: research weaknesses, outreach weaknesses, IPM weaknesses, farmerweaknesses, pesticide industry interference, and weak adoption incentives. Subsequently, 163 participants rated the obstacles expressed in the 51 unique statements according to importance and remediation difficulty. Respondents from developing countries and high-income countries rated the obstacles differently. As a group, developing-country respondents rated "IPM requires collective action within a farming community" as their top obstacle to IPM adoption. Respondents from high-income countries prioritized instead the "shortage of well-qualified IPM experts and extensionists." Differential prioritization was also evident among developing-country regions, and when obstacle statements were grouped into themes. Results highlighted the need to improve the participation of stakeholders from developing countries in the IPM adoption debate, and also to situate the debate within specific regional contexts.
AB - Despite its theoretical prominence and sound principles, integrated pest management (IPM) continues to suffer from anemic adoption rates in developing countries. To shed light on the reasons, we surveyed the opinions of a large and diverse pool of IPM professionals and practitioners from 96 countries by using structured conceptmapping. The first phase of thismethod elicited 413 open-ended responses on perceived obstacles to IPM. Analysis of responses revealed 51 unique statements on obstacles, the most frequent of which was "insufficient training and technical support to farmers." Cluster analyses, based on participant opinions, grouped these unique statements into six themes: research weaknesses, outreach weaknesses, IPM weaknesses, farmerweaknesses, pesticide industry interference, and weak adoption incentives. Subsequently, 163 participants rated the obstacles expressed in the 51 unique statements according to importance and remediation difficulty. Respondents from developing countries and high-income countries rated the obstacles differently. As a group, developing-country respondents rated "IPM requires collective action within a farming community" as their top obstacle to IPM adoption. Respondents from high-income countries prioritized instead the "shortage of well-qualified IPM experts and extensionists." Differential prioritization was also evident among developing-country regions, and when obstacle statements were grouped into themes. Results highlighted the need to improve the participation of stakeholders from developing countries in the IPM adoption debate, and also to situate the debate within specific regional contexts.
KW - Collective action dilemma
KW - Sustainable agriculture
KW - Technology adoption
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84896295173&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1312693111
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1312693111
M3 - Article
C2 - 24567400
AN - SCOPUS:84896295173
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 111
SP - 3889
EP - 3894
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 10
ER -