Oleg Nicetic

Impact of physical characteristics of some mineral and plant oils on efficacy against selected pests

Mineral oils have been historically favoured over plant oils for insect pest control in horticultural crops because of their greater efficacy. Recently the increased pressure for environmentally sustainable pest management strategies has renewed interest in the use of plant oils and also in the reasons for differences in efficacy between plant and mineral oils. Efficacy of canola and mineral oils were compared for two modes of action: asphyxia in control of Saissetia oleae on olives and as an oviposition deterrent in control of Phyllocnistis citrella on lemons. On olives both canola and mineral oil treatments significantly reduced the number of black scale in comparison to the control but mineral oil reduced the number of black scale significantly more than canola oil. When oils were applied to lemons as a preventative spray, concentrations of canola oil above 0.5% significantly reduced the number of P. citrella mines per leaf compared to the control and there were no significant differences between any concentration above 0.5% canola oil and 0.5% mineral oil. Canola oil applied at a concentration of 0.5% was significantly less effective than mineral oil applied at the same concentration. Efficacy of canola oil was found to be lower than that of mineral oil in all experiments, but the higher efficacy of mineral oil was more pronounced in suffocation of S. oleae than in deterrence of P. citrella oviposition. Our results indicate that even though canola oil has very different molecular structures than mineral oils the resulting physical characteristics of canola oil, primarily high boiling point and viscosity, may contribute to their lower efficacy against arthropod pests. However, low phytotoxicity of canola oil indicates that the chemical structure of molecules contained in canola oil had much more influence on processes on the plant surface than the physical characteristics of the oil.

How Agricultural Research for Development Can Make a Change: Assessing Livelihood Impacts in the Northwest Highlands of Vietnam

This chapter explores how impact assessment of agricultural research for development (AR4D), which applies a holistic approach, can provide important insights about the contribution of research to changes in peoples livelihood. It argues that an impact assessment framework that takes into consideration a broad set of livelihood indicators is better able to show how a more participatory approach to AR4D can lead to more sustainable impacts for farmers. This is particularly important in regions that experience varied stages of social change and development, such as the Northwest Highlands of Vietnam. This study developed a holistic impact assessment framework and tested the framework on three agricultural research projects (one Australian, one French, and one Vietnamese-funded project) in Son La Province. The study used participatory techniques involving focus group discussions and semistructured interviews with farmers, in-depth interviews with key informants, documentary review for data collection, and subjected the results to a thematic analysis. The study found that, among the three case projects, one project adopted participatory processes and communication strategies to facilitate the engagement of stakeholders in a research process and targeted the immediate use of research outputs for development. This project achieved better livelihood impacts for local communities. The results of the study indicate that a holistic impact assessment framework utilizing the sustainable livelihoods framework and participatory methods could help to assess the contribution of AR4D projects to development outcomes given the careful attention paid to understanding the complexity of local areas.

Market opportunities to improve vegetable value chains and rural livelihoods in southern Philippines

Two thirds of the population in the southern Philippines are dependent on agriculture yet the country has one of the world’s lowest per capita consumption of fresh produce. Smallholders are poor and incomes are limited by poor integration with markets. In line with the Philippines Development Plan 2011-2016, there is a major opportunity to enhance the performance of vegetable value chains (VC) and to improve the livelihood of small farmers. A study was undertaken to assess how vegetable VC performance could be improved. The study was conducted at five sites in the southern Philippines. It focused on five vegetables – eggplant, tomatoes, sweet pepper, ampalaya and leafy vegetables. Rapid appraisals of vegetable VCs were conducted using observations and interviews with key chain members and associated stakeholders. Existing vegetable VCs were examined to highlight material flow, information flow and relationship along the chains. Key issues along the chain were explored. Three potential chain development models were proposed based on who in a chain takes the position of captain for leading development interventions – smallholders, wholesalers or retailers.