Sustainable Pest Management through Improved Advice in Agricultural Extension

Stefan Toepfer, Tao Zhang, Buyun Wang, Yan Qiao, Haomin Peng, Huifeng Luo, Xuanwu Wan, Rui Gu, Yue Zhang, Han Ji and Min Wan
Additional contact information
Stefan Toepfer: Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, CABI Joint Laboratory for Biosafety, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
Tao Zhang: Beijing Plant Protection Station, Beijing 100026, China
Buyun Wang: Beijing Plant Protection Station, Beijing 100026, China
Yan Qiao: Beijing Plant Protection Station, Beijing 100026, China
Haomin Peng: Xing’an Plant Protection Station, Xing’an County, Guilin 541300, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Huifeng Luo: Xing’an Plant Protection Station, Xing’an County, Guilin 541300, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Xuanwu Wan: Sichuan Provincial Plant Protection Station, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Rui Gu: Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Yue Zhang: Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Han Ji: Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Min Wan: Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, CABI Joint Laboratory for Biosafety, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-20

Abstract: This 5-year study addresses how improved quality of agricultural extension may lead to more sustainable pest management. We studied 112 agricultural extension workers trained as plant doctors under the Plantwise program in China. They run 70 plant clinics in Beijing, Guangxi, and Sichuan provinces. We analysed 47,156 recommendations issued by these plant doctors to 13,051 different growers between 2012 and 2017, and this for 250 different plant health problems on 91 crops. We also interviewed growers who had taken queries to plant clinics. On average, 86% of plant doctors provided comprehensive integrated pest management recommendations to the growers, with a 16% improvement in comprehensiveness over years. This most often included advice of synthetic pesticides (66%) with its frequency not much changing with time. In contrast, as a likely result of Plantwise interventions and China’s pesticide reduction policies, recommendations for biological control increased from 2% to 42%, pest monitoring by 8%, and cultural control by 11%. Recommendations of problematic plant protection agents as listed in the Montreal Protocol, Stockholm or Rotterdam convention, or as highly toxic under WHO’s toxicity classification were already rare in 2013 (1.9%) and nearly phased out by 2017 (0.2%). About 92% of growers implemented the advice, suggesting that agricultural extension services may contribute to changes in agricultural practices at scale. Further investment in such agricultural extension services may be warranted instead of phasing them out.

Keywords: plantwise; impact; rational pesticide use; extension services; biological control; plant clinic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/6767/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/6767/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:17:p:6767-:d:401829

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().