28 -29 October 2019, Siem Reap Province: Cambodia brought together close to 200 participants from regional, national and sub-national levels including policy makers, development practitioners, agriculturalists, researchers, development partners (DPs), NGOs, and farmers to celebrate the 25^th year of the implementation of the National Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Programme.

The National IPM progamme is a very long significant effort of the country with support from various committed resource partners such as FAO, IRRI, Danida, ADB, World Bank, European Union, IFAD, USAID, among others, NGOs, and private sector to ensure food security, food safety and to protect the environment.

The event was organized by the General Directorate of Agriculture (GDA) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) in partnership with and sponsored by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Unites States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Initiating IPM programs in 1993, MAFF aims to improve food security and food safety by enhancing the sustainability of intensified crop production systems, through the promotion of integrated pest and crop management skills at the farm level. A wide range of IPM activities have been implemented over two decades with remarkable results.

H.E Dr Ngin Chhay, Director General of GDA emphasized that the purpose of the event was “mainly, to promote best practices in pest and disease management, key challenges, and gather practical solutions and strategies to further promote ecologically-based crop protection and pesticide risk reduction as essential approaches to minimize disruptions to the agro-ecosystem and ensure food safety in Cambodia.”

He further added that, “the forum is to call for further support to make the IPM program even more active and more efficient as it is one of the most effective approaches to sustain agricultural productivity, ensure economic efficiency, and food safety as well as maintaining Cambodia’s agricultural products competitiveness in the markets.”

IPM is an approach to halt unnecessary use, misuse, and overuse of chemical pesticides. The lessons learned from the past 25 years of the National IPM Programme and IPM related researches showed that the IPM approach has been scientifically proven to be effective in protecting farmers’ yields and economic returns, while reducing agrochemical load in food production. Agricultural products produced using IPM strategies typically attain higher quality towards meeting international trade requirements.

MAFF has recognized the IPM programme as the most appropriate and effective way to educate and transfer significant and diverse technologies to farmers through Farmer Field Schools (FFS). The IPM-FFS provides practical, hands-on topics as farmers are usually more comfortable in the field than in the classroom. The core activity is the analysis of agro-ecosystems in the field.

In other words, IPM-FFS assists farmers dealing with pests in rice fields and other crops. Initiated originally by FAO, the FFS has been an effective approach for farmers’ experiential learning and knowledge sharing, not limited to crop management practices but also livestock, aquaculture, fisheries and natural resources management, climate change adaptation, watershed management, and the small-scale business development for farmers, etc.

Furthermore, an achievement to highlight is the engagement of the private sector in IPM and the safe food movement in Cambodia. Varied groups displayed products that are useful for farmers to implement sustainable IPM practices such as biological control and seeders; as well as agricultural produce from farmers who used IPM methods.

Dr Buyung Hadi, IRRI Representative in Cambodia, drew attention to the trend in pesticide use in Cambodia, similar to other Asian countries, and a framework for creating pest-resilient ecosystems that can effectively help to address this. Putting this strategy into practice at a broad scale will require not only a concerted effort into changing knowledge of farmers, supporting an industry for IPM products and services, enabling policies, but also mechanisms that can create incentives for sustainable practices.

Over the past few years, there have been emerging transboundary pests, plant and animal diseases including the cassava mosaic disease (CMD), the Fall Army Worm, the African Swine Fever etc. Cambodia has been experiencing increased threat from transboundary pests, plant and animal diseases, increased risks of food-borne illnesses, irrational use of agrochemicals and antimicrobials in agriculture, all posing serious threats to public health and environment.

Mr Alexandre Huynh, FAO Representative in Cambodia, mentioned that though IPM has been extensively promoted through the FFS paradigm over the past 25 years as an alternative approach to chemical control of pest and disease, stakeholders need to work harder together in the face of the increasing threats of emerging transboundary pests, plant and animal diseases.

He added that “FAO values IPM as a preferred approach for sustainable intensification of agricultural production, as well as for pesticide risk reduction. We are committed to continuing our support to the Royal Government’s efforts to address food safety in the country by working closely with MAFF and other stakeholders to promote ecologically-based integrated pest management in Cambodia.” 

With support from partners, Cambodia has adopted the national standard for Good Agricultural Practices (CamGAP) in line with the ASEAN GAP, and developed national guidelines for GAP implementation and certification.  IPM is seen as an essential approach to ensure compliance to the GAP standard.

H.E. Veng Sakhon, Minister of MAFF stated that “our agricultural development goal is to enhance agricultural growth, improve product quality and safety, increase agricultural exports, its competitiveness and value addition while balancing the agricultural land use and maintaining sustainable management of forest and fisheries resources.”  He added that “the organization of the IPM and food safety forum is timely and crucially in line with the global tendencies towards production and consumption of quality and safe products. The inputs and results from the forum are key to inform sound policy development and implementation towards strengthening agricultural product quality and food safety for wellbeing of the people as well as protecting the environment”, the minister added.

In his concluding remarks, H.E. Veng Sakhon voiced his strong support for IPM and the implementation of related measures to ensure food safety. He recommended to continue promoting IPM, crop diversification, cultivation of highly competitive crops for niche markets, smart production technologies and practices, adoption of CamGAP standard and other standards such as organic and Sustainable Rice Platform, market linkages of these products; modernizing extension services using e-extension; strengthening enforcement of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures; and lastly adopting the Public-Private-Development Partner-Community Partnership approach to achieve the goal of ensuring better income for the producers, high quality and safe products for the consumers while protecting the environment in line with the green development.

Contact persons:

1. Mr. Iv Phirun, IPM Expert and Deputy Director of Department of Industrial Crop, GDA, Email: [email protected]
2. Dr Rica Flor, Postdoctoral fellow in IPM project, IRRI Cambodia, Tel: 016698115, Email: [email protected]
3. Mr. Sherwin Pineda, Senior Manager, Strategic Communication, Tel:  +639153094768, Email: [email protected]
4. Ms. Tet Chann, Communications Officer, UNFAO in Cambodia, Tel: 011 276 775, Email: [email protected]