논 주변에 꽃을 심어 균형을 회복시킨 여성 농민들

By planting flowers around their rice paddies, women farmers in Vietnam are saving 42% in insect control costs.

The women, from Tien Giang province in Vietnam, participated in training to learn how to keep their rice field ecologically-sound and balanced – by planting flowers around them – a practice called “ecological engineering”. The ‘friendly’ insects and other organisms that can then live in this diverse vegetation around the rice fields help control pests of rice like brown plant hopper.

Flowers and other vegetation around the rice fields help build natural protection against pests, allowing farmers to save on pest control costs that are usually spent on chemicals.

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The misuse of pesticides can break down the natural defenses of the rice field by killing the natural enemies of pests, which can contribute to pest outbreaks. These chemicals are marketed in such a way that farmers may be led to believe that they need to use them, even if they actually didn’t.

As part of a joint project between the International Rice Research Institute and theAsian Development Bank, in March 2012, 200 women from 10 districts in Tien Giang province were trained on how to keep the natural diversity of their farms.

“After ecological engineering was introduced, it significantly reduced these farmers’ insecticide use by 21.6%,” said Dr. Monina Escalada, communication consultant. “Their spending for insect control decreased from US$ 27 to $ 16, about 41.6% reduction." she said.

By the winter-spring cropping season of 2012-2013, a more intensive training for 505 more women on ecological engineering was conducted with farmer groups in 13 villages in Cai Lay district – also in Vietnam. Women trainees were taught to observe the increase in bees and parasitoids (called small bees) that visit the nectar-producing flowers grown on bunds and to preserve them.

If the women continue implementing what they learned, Dr. K.L. Heong, IRRI principal scientist said that in the long term, households will save as much as US$50 – US100 per season by reducing insecticide inputs and not suffer any production loss.