National Irrigation Research Station. Private Bag S-3, Mazabuka, Zambia. The ability of individual farmers to make pest management decisions is largely dependent on education and socio-economic factors. The country's need to pursue IPM approaches is precipitated by a number of pressing pest management related problems.
Pesticide resistance is suspected in a number of major vegetable pests.
Indiscriminate routine pesticide spraying regimes, despite established IPM packages in crops like cotton are a source of concern. There are currently a number of on-going initiatives employing IPM concepts aimed at solving these problems. Current methods of information exchange are mainly by publications, telephone, fax, radio, television, and training workshops. The cost of operating these modes of communication, when dealing with vast amounts of information is largely prohibiting. While these types of communication are to continue playing a vital role in the flow and exchange of IPM information, there is an obvious need to gain access to more versatile, speedy, and cost effective means of acquiring and exchanging this information.