2.2. Establishing farmer participatory experiments
In each village,a farmer meeting was organized to
discuss about current use of pesticides,seeds and
fertilizers. The experiments were conducted in 35
villages in 11 provinces (see Table 2 for names). The
winter–spring (W–S) experiments were carried out
between November 2001 and March 2002 while the
summer–autumn (S–A) experiments were carried out
between April and August,2002. We presented field
results to show that at reduced seeds,fertilizers and
insecticides,there were no differences in yields and
asked farmers if they would be prepared to experiment
with these findings. Farmers were invited to participate
in the experiment and set up in their own fields.
Volunteer farmers allocated a portion of their fields
(1000 sqM) as the experimental area with the remain-
der of their fields as ‘‘control’’. For the experimental
area,farmers were given guidelines in adjusting their
seed rates,fertilizer rates and to avoid using insecticides
in the first 40 days after sowing for leaf folder control
(Table 1). Otherwise farmers were to apply pesticides as
required. For the control area,farmers were to practice
their normal routines. A simple system to record their
inputs in the two plots was provided to facilitate data
recording. Participating farmers were motivated to take
part in the experiment through farmer workshops and
meetings to discuss ways to reduce inputs conducted by
extension staff. Only volunteer farmers conducted the
experiments and no compensation of any form was
provided as incentives.