The woman in the photo is from a village nearby the conference site and she came just for the oIntegrated Pest Managment (IPM) workshop. She was intent on learning everything she could about IPM and was an excellent student. She learned quickly and shared some astonishing insights with the other participants about how IPM works.

The importance of integrated pest managment (IPM) is that it relies on observation made by the farmer/grower who then makes decisions on how to resolve a problem effecting his crops based on his/her own experience. It is not pure science and it does not rely on scientific training or equipment. It simplifies all of that and puts the process firmly within the control of the farmer.

Like most of the conference field trips the IPM workshop was as much about learning as it was about connecting and building relationships for the future. One of the goals of the Chitwan conference was to create a "pool" of people who would be resources/leaders in the future for both practical and political purposes. The field trips, if nothing else, were fun and relaxing. The IPM field trip was also practical. It taught the conference participants the direct methods for observing key factors that could destroy crops including factors other than insects. IPM is idealy suited for crops like corn, rice as well as orchard and tree crops like apples, peaches, mangoes, pears, or even for flowers and ornamentals. The conference participants first learned how to make a "transect". The transect is usually a straight line but doesn't have to be. It can be a line of sight, say from a rock on one side of the field to a tree on the other side, or it can be defined with string stretched across the field where the crops are growing. Once the transect is defined the grower simply walks along it observing everything he/she can .

These men were looking at a plantation of young chuiri trees and inspecting them for tree pests like thrips and curcillo beetles. After they established the transect across the plantation they used a random sampling pattern to indentify both non beneficial and beneficial insects. While one team member observes and counts the others wrote down the findings. Often they had to ask Ram Chandra for a precise identification of an insect. The teams also looked for any sign of stress in the plants from heat, drought, fungal infections, or over watering.

After everyone had a chance to walk the transect and make observations the group met to discuss what everyone had seen. This is a key aspect of IPM which is the group response to the observations made along the transect. IPM is successful because of the reliance on more than one opinion. It utilizes all of the available wisdom and experience of the group. In the case where everyone does not know the scientific names of the insects they have seen so they invent name of their own. In one case they named a beetle the Red Motorcycle Helmet Bug which was a bit cumbersome but effective.

IPM was developed for use by farmers in the under-developed countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal after the "Green Revolution" of the 1970s failed in its goal to double crop production in those countries with exploding populations. Since the 1980's IPM has had a successful track record where ever it's been used. It's quick and to the point and allows the farmer the discretion of his/her own experience. In all these ways it is described as a "sustainable" practice.