Network Framing of Pest Management Knowledge and Practice*

Conventional technology transfer is based on the assumption that autonomous individuals independently make behavioral decisions. In contrast, Actor-Network Theory (ANT) suggests that people and technologies are interconnected in ways that reinforce and reproduce some types of knowledge and consequent behavioral practices, but not others. Research on pest management in Mali shows the extent to which farm-level decisions are shaped off-farm through contracts that communicate commercial and regulatory decision-making information. Findings from the analysis of Ukrainian farmer pest management decision-making demonstrate the exercise of power of commercial interests. In light of these findings, evidence from Farmer Field School experiences in Indonesia is reinterpreted. This paper concludes that knowledge networks are not monolithic and, furthermore, there is competition between network segments to define appropriate knowledge and practice. It also recommends that agricultural scientists pay more attention to the negotiations framing legitimate knowledge about the networks in which their producer clienteles are embedded. We are faced with a dilemma. On one hand, pesticide use in developing countries has increased dramatically over the past decade creating conditions for a human and environmental catastrophe. On the other, pesticides are playing an increasingly important role in economic development. Indeed, increased investment in crop protection tech* This paper originated in a presentation to a workshop for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Globalizing IPM Through Participatory Research, in August 2004. I would like to thank Ed Rajotte for encouraging me to transform that presentation into a publication and acknowledge the contributions of the many involved in the original research reviewed here; in particular, the collaboration of Olena Cholovska, Igor Dolinniy, and Myroslava Ishchuk in Ukraine and Kadiatou Touré Gamby, Haoua Traoré Sissoko, and Issa Sidibé in Mali. Financial support for this research was provided by two USAID projects the Pest and PesticideManagement Project (PPMP, Grant No. 0003-G-00-5125-00) and the Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP, Grant No. LAG-G-00-93-0053-00). I would also like to acknowledge Larry Busch and anonymous reviewers of earlier versions of this paper, and particularly, Rural Sociology editor Joachim Singelmann and his team of reviewers. Of course, any remaining errors are mine. Direct correspondence to: Keith M. Moore, Associate Program Director, Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (SANREM CRSP), Office of International Research, Education, and Development (OIRED), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 526 Prices Fork Road, Suite 211, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0378, Phone: (540) 231-2009, Fax: (540) 231-1402, [email protected]. Rural Sociology 73(3), 2008, pp. 414–439 Copyright E 2008 by the Rural Sociological Society