Rodents are a serious constraint to poor farmers in the upland and lowland farming systems of the Lao People’sDemocratic Republic and have been described as the pest they have least control over. To better understand...Rodents are a serious constraint to poor farmers in the upland and lowland farming systems of the Lao People’sDemocratic Republic and have been described as the pest they have least control over. To better understand theseproblems a baseline survey of farmers was conducted to assess their knowledge, attitudes, and practices with respectto rodent management. A structured survey was conducted in 12 villages across Luang Namtha, Luang Prabang,and Houaphan provinces. Twenty farmers from each village were interviewed (a total of 240 farmers). Farmersnoted that the main factor limiting production was pests (70%), with rats identified as the most important pest(98%). The mean yield loss was estimated at 19% (range 0–100%). Trapping and rodenticides were commonlyused by farmers. Farmers believed that it was important to control rats and believed that rats could only be controlledif farmers worked together. However, 65% of farmers conducted rodent control by themselves, and 92% offarmers believed that rodenticides were harmful to the environment. The main constraints identified were the highcost of some control methods and the need to get farmers to work together as a community.展开更多
基金the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research(SFS/2004/016),CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems,and the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute.
文摘Rodents are a serious constraint to poor farmers in the upland and lowland farming systems of the Lao People’sDemocratic Republic and have been described as the pest they have least control over. To better understand theseproblems a baseline survey of farmers was conducted to assess their knowledge, attitudes, and practices with respectto rodent management. A structured survey was conducted in 12 villages across Luang Namtha, Luang Prabang,and Houaphan provinces. Twenty farmers from each village were interviewed (a total of 240 farmers). Farmersnoted that the main factor limiting production was pests (70%), with rats identified as the most important pest(98%). The mean yield loss was estimated at 19% (range 0–100%). Trapping and rodenticides were commonlyused by farmers. Farmers believed that it was important to control rats and believed that rats could only be controlledif farmers worked together. However, 65% of farmers conducted rodent control by themselves, and 92% offarmers believed that rodenticides were harmful to the environment. The main constraints identified were the highcost of some control methods and the need to get farmers to work together as a community.
