RDA-IRRI champions climate-smart pest management for sustainable rice production

LAGUNA, Philippines (13 May 2025) — IRRI emphasizes prevention and suppression at the recent International Technology Cooperation Center of the Rural Development Administration – Korea (ITCC- RDA) and IRRI training on Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The 5-day training course aimed to introduce recent paradigm shifts in rice pest management, update participants on recent advances in management technologies, and assist them in the preparation and implementation of their localized IPM research plans.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a sustainable and effective management approach to controlling pests in agriculture by implementing a combination of scientific techniques and ecological knowledge such as pest biology and behavior. IPM was first introduced in the 1970’s to address the growing negative effects of pesticides in agriculture. “Rice will have to be produced, processed, and marketed in a more sustainable way.”, IRRI Scientist and Country Representative for Cambodia Dr. Nurmi Pangesti said as she explained how climate change is shaping ecosystems involved in global rice production.

IPM does not aim to eliminate all pests present in the field. Rather, its goal is to control the pest population by ensuring that a single species is not dominating the ecosystem and causing significant damage to the crops. A major principle that Dr. Nurmi highlighted is that IPM emphasizes prevention and suppression of pest population before intervening through the application of chemical pesticides. IPM deprioritizes the use of chemical pesticides since they contribute to climate change. Moreover, there is a declining number of approved active substances which increases the risk of resistance development.

IRRI Senior Associate Scientist Dr. Nancy Castilla stated that climate change significantly influences the population of pests and the intensity of diseases and pest injury . “Rice yields decline by 10% for every 1-degree Celsius increase in minimum temperature.”, Dr. Castilla explained. “There is an increasing number of studies which show that the increase in crop losses to insect pests is caused by an increase in temperature by the warming climate.”

To help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change, IRRI is promoting climate-smart pest management (CSPM) which takes into consideration both integrated pest management techniques and climate change adaptation and mitigation practices. CSPM aims to reduce crop losses caused by pests, increase incomes of those farmers who practice sustainable farming, and improve overall environmental resilience.

Senior Agriculturist Russ-Uzi Mayenne A. Ebora from the Philippines Bureau of Plant and Industry (BPI) shared how the country is scaling CSPM at the community-level. She stated that they are promoting the use of biological control agents (BCAs) like Trichogramma to control the population of the destructive Yellow Stem Borers (YSB) in rice. There is a need for strong policy and investment support for scaling IPM to ensure stable supplies of BCAs for smallholder farmers.

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