Crop loss assessment data is generally not available. The methods of pest control currently available to farmers are use of chemical insecticides and cultural practice. Government extension tends to recommend insecticides because reliable information on cultural controls are lacking. The quest by farmers to increase agricultural production is bound to increase the need to protect their produce against losses due to pests. This is expected to increase the demand for pesticides.
Problems regarding their use include lack of information, illiteracy, and unavailability.
These problems indicate that proper utilization of pesticides for management of field pests is still in the future, and will require a lot of education at farmers' level. Although the economic and social benefits of IPM are well known, its potential in Uganda is still unrealized. Over the last decades farmers have had to largely rely on non-chemical pest management methods. For example, Antestia bugs on arabica coffee were controlled by pruning to reduce shading, pest surveillance and limited pesticide application. The stainer was being controlled through the destruction of old cotton seed, uprooting and burning of old cotton plants, observance of closed season, and spraying with insecticides when populations were high.