Abstract:
Mango farmers in Elgeyo Marakwet were faced with the challenge of high fruit fly
infestation that causes a 40-80% quality and quantity loss of mangoes. To address this
challenge, ICIPE and partners implemented a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) experiment
that involved three groups of farmers: farmers who received training only, farmers who
received training and fruit fly Integrated Pest Management (IPM) materials and the control
group (non-trained). The objective of this study was to determine if this particular IPM
intervention (training and use of fruit fly IPM) had a significant influence on: the knowledge
and perception of farmers towards fruit fly infestation and management, on the demand for
IPM (fruit fly traps), and on mango loss due to fruit flies. The study involved a sample of 663
farmers that were interviewed during the baseline survey, and two follow-ups with 7% and
8% attrition respectively. Cross-sectional data obtained at baseline addressed the second
objective of this study, while the first and third objectives utilized panel data. The
Difference-in Difference (DiD) model revealed that farmers who received training and startup
IPM materials had a significant improvement in their knowledge and perception towards
fruit fly IPM by 8 % and 5 %, while mango production loss substantially declined by 7 % and
8 % compared to the control group and farmers who received training only respectively. This
suggests that training accompanied by the provision of start-up IPM materials used by
farmers is a great stimulus to promote social and experiential learning. Further analysis from
the zero-inflated negative binomial regression revealed that farmers who received training
only significantly demanded more fruit fly traps compared to the control group. This
indicated that training only was effective in upscaling adoption of fruit fly IPM even when
accompanied with the provision of start-up IPM materials which was insignificant in this
case.
