Adoption of Integrated Pest Management for Red Palm Weevil Control among Farmers in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, is widely considered to be highly invasive and the most damaging insect pest affecting palms in the world. Nonetheless, the prevention or significant slowing of the spread of RPW mainly relies on the application of integrated pest management (IPM) programs. This study aimed to evaluate farmers’ adoption of RPW IPM practices and examine the differences in adoption according to the farmers’ socio-economic attributes and their farm characteristics. The data were collected from 156 farmers through structured questionnaires by the Al-Kharaj governorate, Saudi Arabia. The findings showed that the farmers moderately adopted the categories of legislative control (54.77%) and cultural practices (50.44%), whereas they were showed a low-level adoption regarding the prevention, mechanical control, and chemical control categories. The cluster analysis revealed two variable farmer segments, “low adopters” and “moderate adopters”, based on the average level of adoption of the 23 IPM practices examined. The cluster of “moderate adopters” accounted for 57.1% of the samples and had a higher average adoption in terms of all the practices investigated. Significant differences (p < 0.01) were found between the two groups of farmers, corresponding to their age, education level, farm size, farming experience, number of date palm trees on the farm, off-farm income, farming activities, source of irrigation, type of irrigation, growing of the ‘Khodri’ cultivar, growing of the ‘Barhi’ cultivar, and tree spacing. The results suggest that implementing campaigns to increase public awareness of the consequences resulting from the non-adoption of IPM, enhancing the participation of date palm farmers in the area-wide IPM strategy, and improving recognition behavior by detecting RPW with digital devices are useful actions.

Sustainable Pest Management in Date Palm Ecosystems: Unveiling the Ecological Dynamics of Red Palm Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Infestations

“…Consequently, there is growing demand for the adoption of IPM strategies to tackle the RPW [96,97]. IPM involves the integration of cultural techniques, ecosystem health techniques, and biological and chemical approaches to reducing pesticide dependency while maintaining crop yield, quality, and profitability [98][99][100].…”

Semiochemicals to control the red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus

“…The results of the examine with differences in adoption indicated that the farmers moderately adopted the cultural practises (50.44%) but categories of legislative control (54.77%), whereas they showed a low-level of adoption regarding the prevention, chemical control and mechanical control. Alotaibi et al, 2022 [7] . The goal of our research is to evaluate and measure individuals' responses to new formulations containing a mixture of different types of essential oils.…”