Use of pesticides and attitude to pest management strategies among rice and rice-fish farmers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

This study assesses the use of pesticides and attitude to pest management strategies among rice and rice-fish farmers in Can Tho and Tien Giang provinces of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, in 2007. A comparison is made to a similar study in 1999, in order to identify changes in patterns of pesticide use and possible influences of integrated pest management (IPM) programmes and brown planthopper (a major pest) outbreaks. One hundred and twenty farmers used 66 different pesticides, similar to the 64 pesticides recorded as being used in the 1999 survey. Nine of the 10 most popular pesticides in 2007 were the same as those found to be popular in 1999. Insecticides are used by 73-95% of the farmers, which is the most commonly employed type of pesticide. The number of applications of both herbicides and fungicides has more than halved since 1999 for all farmers, while insecticide applications has doubled for IPM farmers (those with prior training in IPM methodology). Similarly, the average dose of active ingredient (a.i.) of insecticides per crop has decreased slightly for non-IPM rice farmers, while it has more than doubled among IPM farmers, resulting in almost the same amount of a.i. per crop for all groups of farmers (insecticides 0.6, fungicides 0.5, and herbicides 0.3 kg a.i. ha(-1) crop(-1)). Overall, the results indicate a temporal trend for more selective use of pesticides and an increased awareness among non-IPM farmers of the negative side effects of pesticide use.