Start at the End: Co-designing Conservation Biocontrol Schemes with Asian Rice Farmers for Sustainable Food Production
Buyung A.R. Hadi, IRRI Representative to Cambodia, Senior Scientist in Entomology
Abstract: Irrigated rice constitutes a complex ecosystem with a relatively high species diversity and redundant food web. Ecosystem processes of parasitism and predation naturally regulate herbivorous pest populations. However, these natural processes are often hampered by prophylactic use of pesticide, still a widely used practice in rice production across the continent. IRRI has led research on conservation biological control to optimize the biocontrol ecosystem service on rice landscape. The concept has been shown to work in field scale, but adoption by smallholder farmers is relatively slow. We’ve consequently learned valuable lessons on co-designing a conservation biological control scheme together with smallholder farmers as our end user to improve adoptability. Lessons learned during the last decade of conservation biological control research at IRRI will be shared.
Bio: As IRRI entomologist, I’m responsible for forming collaborative research networks to detect and mitigate perennial and emerging insect problems in Asian rice landscape. I have structured my work around three major themes: designing ecologically-based pest management strategy (e.g. development and deployment of resistant rice varieties, conservation and augmentative biological control), analyzing the impacts of pesticide on pest regulation in rice ecosystems (e.g. resistance, resurgence, hormesis) and, recently, investigating the impact of climate change on pest population dynamics.
