Browsing by Author "Dangles, Olivier"

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    Agent - Based Models and Integrated Pest Management Diffusion in Small Scale Farmer Communities.
    (2014) Crespo Pérez, María Verónica; Dangles, Olivier
    The purpose of this chapter is to present how agent-based models can be used for the diffusion of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) information in small scale farmer communities, using the potato tuber moth in the North Andean region as a study case. This issue was addressed through an international project called INNOMIP (INNOvación en el Manejo Integrado de Plagas, 2009–2012, funded by the McKnight Foundation), which operated in three Andean countries (Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia). This project involved scientists from a broad range of disciplines, from agronomists to modelers to extensionists. With the specific objective of proposing innovative IPM extension tools, we first developed a role-playing game relying on an agent-based model to simulate the consequences of individual behaviors on pest control in a theoretical landscape. We then tried this role-playing game with 90 farmers belonging to 6 communities in three countries. Briefly, the training sessions consisted of a board game where farmers could exchange and discuss information about IPM practices and visualize the benefits of IPM adoption and cooperation within a theoretical landscape. Based on farmer interviews and comparison of IPM level of knowledge before and after the sessions, our study suggests that the role-playing game sessions significantly increased the IPM knowledge score in the community and also reduced farmers’ knowledge heterogeneity. Moreover, our analyses suggest that farmers’ age and extension experience significantly affected role-playing game success, with younger participants (and among them, those with higher initial knowledge) more inclined to increase their IPM knowledge after the session. While we have no evidence of the long (mid)-term benefits of our sessions in the adoption/changes of IPM practices, farmers revealed themselves more predisposed to understand and realize the importance of the cooperative basis of IPM and therefore disseminate to their peers IPM information they had acquired. At a broader scale, this study exemplifies how a computer simulation model can be used for teaching purposes and may represent a promising complement to existing IPM diffusion programs. More broadly, our experience with ABM (Agent-Based Models) for IPM issues suggests that new approaches in pest management extension practices should include topics such as group decision making, intergroup relations, commitment, and persuasion which deal directly with how other farmers influence each other’s thoughts and actions and consequently with the level of insect infestation in the community.
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    Dinámica espacio-temporal de triatominae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) silvestres y domiciliares en una comunidad rural de la provincia de Manabí - Ecuador
    (PUCE - Quito, 2010) Terán Mera, David Andrés; Dangles, Olivier
    La enfermedad de Chagas (ECh) fue descrita por primera vez por Carlos Chagas en 1909, es causada por el protozoo flagelado llamado Trypanosoma cruzi, se encuentra distribuida desde el paralelo 42°N en el sur de los Estados Unidos hasta el paralelo 42°S en el sur de Argentina-Patagonia. A nivel mundial, es considerada la tercera enfermedad tropical más importante; en Ecuador, en una población de 13.228.000 habitantes, se estima que 230.000 personas se encuentran infectadas con T. cruzi, mientras que 6.200.000 se encuentran en riesgo de contraer la enfermedad.
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    Interacciones intra e inter-específicas entre polillas de la papa (Lapidoptera: Gelechiidae)
    (PUCE - Quito, 2010) Herrera Defaz, Mario Andrés; Dangles, Olivier
    Los insectos plaga son una de las principales causas de pérdidas en cultivos y en almacenes a nivel mundial. El complejo de polillas de la papa (CPP) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) está conformado por tres especies: Tecia solanivora, Symmetrischema tangolias y Phthorimaea operculella. Este complejo es una de las principales plagas de los cultivos y almacenes de papas en varios países de la región Andina. Si bien varios trabajos han estudiado al CPP algunos de ellos han ignorado las interacciones que se producen entre las especies del complejo. Este estudio analizó las interacciones que se producen entre las especies del CPP durante las fases larvarias y adultas mediante la realización de cuatro experimentos.