In 2018, PAN Ethiopia and PAN UK initiated an IPM research and farmer training project in Lake Ziway area, Oromia, Ethiopia. The aim of the project was to reduce pesticide use and consequent health and environmental impacts by promoting agroecological methods for pest management among vegetable farmers through Farmer Field Schools (FFS) and farmer-participatory learning plots.
Since 2018, over 700 farmers have been trained via season-long FFS, plus a further 500 farmers have been trained via peer mentoring. From a survey of 78 trained farmers in 2021, many farmers had significantly reduced their use of HHPs, with only 5.5% reporting acute health incidents compared to 20% recorded at the baseline. Initial uptake assessments showed that 92% of trained farmers adopted at least one agroecological method.
