A Study on the Korean Rice Farmer's KAP of the Integrated Pest Management Project for Sustainable Agriculture in Korea

지속농업을 위한 벼 재배 농민의 병해충 종합관리사업에 관한 KAP 수준

The objectives of this study were (1) to analyze the degree of rice farmers' knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM), (2) to determine the related variables for decisions on pest control, and (3) to indicate desirable direction for IPM farmers' field training. The study was carried out through a questionnaire method and sane interviewing survey of 300 rice farmers by the IPM trainers who participated in IPM training in 1994 or 1995. The data were collected from 268 respondents to the questionnaire consisted of KAP and related variables. The major findings of the study were as follows: 1. The KAP score of the farmers concerning IPM were 71 for knowledge, 76.2 for attitude and 74 for practice on average. 2. The KAP score was higher for farmers cultivating larger land size and for those with more participation in IPM training. Also the KAP was higher for the members of the Rural Leaders Association and Future Farmers Association than any other groups. 3. The IPM farmers had strong positive attitudes towards the resistant rice varieties. However, the practical pest control rate of the IPM farmers was low for conservation of natural enemies, timely control following occurrence and plant compensation what few pest were presence in the paddy field. 4. The KAP Score on the economic threshold level and safe pesticide use was relatively low for elder farmers and for those with lower educational background. Most farmers preferred calendar spraying methods for preventive pest control to any other method of pest control. Knowledge was relatively low on pesticide and environmental contamination. 5. Decision making on pest control depends on the extension officer and rural leader's opinion. The survey method for pest occurrence by directly counting pest in the field was only 22.9% among the farmers of this study. 6. Most farmers used pesticide for preventive pest occurrence even when pest didn't occur in their field. The average number of pesticide applications per cropping season in rice field was 3.7 times, and the number of mixed pesticides per application was 4.3 kinds of pesticides. Also 6 recommendations were made in this study for improvement of IPM farmer's training.