Understanding interactions and relationships in pest management innovation processes in Bangladesh  

Samenvatting (Engelstalig):

An ethnographic research is conducted in Bangladesh to understand interactions, relationships, and cultural diversities among interconnected actors and organizations and their influences on ongoing pest management innovation processes. The research provides an overview of the entire pest management system (at local level) and reveals the contrasting interactional processes at different levels: farmer community level; organizational level of agricultural extension; the regime level (pest management companies); and trader-farmer interactions. Findings suggest that the cultural features of farming communities and extension organizations influenced the enactment of tasks and processes of the innovation journeys, leading to different outcomes in different contexts. In the present context of Bangladesh, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach remains a niche which is too weak to compete with the dominant players in the pesticide regime. Results suggest that frequent interactions, relationships of interdependencies and strong alignment of farmers with the pesticide companies and traders constitute the dominant regime.