Concept 11: Competency standards for IPM

This is a concept closely related to the idea of an information gap.  In attempting to provide a useful resource on IPM in rice, the content of the RiceIPM CD was structured on what were seen to be important competency standards.  In other words, if rice farmers and their advisors are to make good IPM decisions, then they should –

• Understand the ecology of pests

• Know how to best check the rice crop

• Be able to diagnose crop problems and identify pests and beneficial organisms

• Be aware of key information about specific pests and beneficials

• Know how pests cause damage to the crop and how the rice crop can compensate

• Be aware of the options for managing pests, how effective these management options are and what effect they can have on beneficials, human health and the environment

• Be competent in the skills required to correctly implement IPM practices

• Be able to assess the costs and benefits of implementing crop protection measures

• Be able to test their understanding and knowledge of key IPM issues

It would be an interesting exercise to consider how these competency standards might vary from place to place and to what extent the farmers that you might be concerned with “know” these key competency standards.  If decision making at the farm level is to be improved, effort needs to be devoted to improving competency standards, including addressing the four activities associated with the information gap (research, synthesis, dissemination, reception), according to their contribution to the overall gap.  

Apart from differences from farm to farm and country to country, an inevitable problem is that the cause, nature, and degree of the information gap and competency standards is constantly changing, as new pest problems arise and novel means of controlling them are developed.  The remaining concepts all address this issue in different ways.