The creation of the IPM Training Guide, which will be available at this year’s ENDURE Conference, follows a comprehensive assessment of IPM learning needs, conducted with ENDURE partners, local advisers and teachers across six European countries and supported by a review of the current literature available to advisers.

The meetings were led by ENDURE’s Philippe Delval (pictured right), from France’s Association de Coordination Technique Agricole (ACTA), and were held with representatives from Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Spain and Switzerland.

A common theme that emerged was the need to have a more participatory approach for training, which means the Training Guide will not only include items such as technical materials, pest control and management tools and options applicable in IPM, but will also include material on methodological development, for example how to increase the participatory component of training activities and of learning processes.

ENDURE’s researchers acknowledge that it is impossible for the group to offer complete IPM training for a number of reasons. These include the fact that IPM is not a distinct discipline, but draws on a range of sciences including areas such agronomy, biology, biochemistry and sociology. Furthermore, training in IPM needs to be adapted to specific regions, crops or cropping systems and, since IPM is a continuous process (see ENDURE’s definition of IPM), farming practices need to continuously evolve.

Thus the contents of the Training Guide will fit in with the concept of IPM as a systems approach and allow users to adapt the ENDURE outputs to their plant protection systems as they evolve to meet national IPM targets.

ENDURE will be designing products that help trainers create their own training modules in the form of a guide composed of different elements, including information sheets, leaflets, recommendations and links, following four main topics requested by trainers:

Advisers have been clear about their needs for successful IPM training. Copyright: DAAS, Denmark.

Convincing arguments: Advisers reported that they needed convincing arguments about the advantages of IPM as this can help initiate change through discussions and reflection, help to establish a group or allow progress along the IPM continuum to be maintained.

Training methods:  A common theme of the meetings was the need for a more participatory approach. ENDURE training group members have experience in this area and can also draw on the expertise of the Network’s team of sociologists. Thus they will be sharing recommendations on how best to facilitate learning through sharing experiences and experimentation.

Training tools:  Post training information that can be used by trainers. This will include sources of information at both national and European Union levels and case studies of participatory IPM programmes such as the IPM for Western Corn Rootworm programme in Hungary.

Training modules and checklists:  To include ‘ready-to-use’ modules and checklists on how to build a training module on a specific topic.

• To download ENDURE’s IPM Learning Needs Assessment: 
  ENDURE_DS1.10 [pdf - 93.88 kB]

If you found this article interesting you may also want to consult:

• Putting IPM into practice 
• Learning IPM lessons from WCR in Hungary 

Four leaflets are currently available in ENDURE's Training in Integrated Pest Management series. Download them below:

	Training in Integrated Pest Management Number One [pdf - 536.86 kB]
	Training in Integrated Pest Management Number Two [pdf - 165.14 kB]
	Training in Integrated Pest Management Number Three [pdf - 598.56 kB]
	Training in Integrated Pest Management Number Four [pdf - 1.39 MB]