EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The project, “Reduction of Pesticide Residues on Economic Crops through Use of IPM
Methods in Brunei Darussalam” is being implemented over a period of 36 months in five
phases. The aim of the Project is to minimize the use of hazardous pesticides on economic
crops through human resources development program by upgrading the skills and expertise of
relevant officers from the Department of Agriculture and Agrifood (DOAA), Brunei
Darussalam in implementing ecologically friendly pest and diseases management activities
through the implementation of integrated pest management (IPM), effective insect pest
identification, and reference collection management.
The main objectives of the project are:
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to formulate and develop IPM practice promoting environmental friendly principle of
pest control in rice and vegetable crops based on reduced of, reduce risk from, and
reduce reliance on pesticides,
to raise farmer awareness and understanding of these pesticide problems and how they
can be avoided through extensive education program on IPM, safe use of pesticides,
pesticides application techniques, use of natural enemies and biological control.
To upgrade DOAA capacity in insect pest taxonomy, identification and collection
management.
This report describes the activities implemented in the First Phase of the Project from
February to August 2011. They are 6 (six) scheduled activities for Phase One and all have
been implemented satisfactorily and the project milestones for this Phase have been achieved:
1. Project Inception Meeting: Several decisions and amendments related to the
implementation of project activities and its starting dates for each activity have been
made and agreed.
2. Study Visit to Thailand: Seven officers from DOAA have been exposed to various
practices of GAP and IPM in the field, mass-production of biocontrol agents (parasitoids,
Beauveria, Trichoderma, Metarhhizium, etc.), organic vegetable production, using lemongrass as insect repellent during their visits to Chiangrai Rice Research Centre, FFS and
Community Laboratory in Chiangmai & Chiangrai, Angkhang Royal Agriculture Station
and Biological Control Sub-station both in Chiangmai.
3. Survey to record and collect phytophagous mites for identification and preparing manual:
Field collection of mites have been conducted at Kampung Masin, Kampong Rimba and
Kampong Birau from different vegetable (5 types) and fruit crops (12 types) as well as
ornamental plants. Two hundred mite slides has been prepared (ring & label according to
ISPM standard) and currently being identified.
4. Working with relevant DOAA officers to refurbish and consolidate available insect
collection: The status of current collections (dry collection, ethanol-stored specimens, and
microscope slide-mounted specimens), available facilities, and equipment/supplies
needed have been assessed and recommendations have been made to improve these. In
addition, written records (collection and identification) and current status of accessibility
have also been examined critically. Visits to two other insect collections, i.e. Brunei
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Museum and Biological Science Collection-UBD have been organized to see what groups
of insects they contained. Setting-up a one-stop diagnostic workstation area in the Unit
was also proposed.
5. Organizing a training course on survey techniques for fruit-fly: Twenty nine officers of
DOAA participated in the training on the use of hand-held GPS and Arc-View GIS data
management system held from 4-6 July 2011. In addition a fruitfly GIS database system
for surveys with 226 trapping points (2 traps per point) has been established at 5-km grid
covering entire areas of Brunei.
6. Conducting IPM Fact-finding Workshop and collating information on IPM: From the
workshop and field visits, several issues related to the use of pesticides have been
identified. Currently the rice and vegetable farmers relied primarily on chemical
pesticides for pest control and the application of pesticides is normally done on a
prophylactic basis.
1. INTRODUCTION
An IPM project entitling “Reduction of Pesticide Residues on Economic Crops through Use
of IPM Methods in Brunei Darussalam” awarded on contract to ASEANET (the Southeast
Asian LOOP of BioNET International) by Brunei Darussalam (hereafter referred as Brunei)
was undertaken from April to October 2004. Following its successful completion, the project
entitling “Reduction of Pesticide Residues on Economic Crops through the Use of IPM
Methods and Strengthening Capabilities in Insect Identification and Collection” (hereafter
referred as Brunei IPM2) was formulated. The Brunei IPM2 project aims to further assist
Brunei strengthens its plant protection programmes on a much wider front, covering broader
scope and many more activities.
On 22nd January 2011, the Department of Agriculture and Agri-food (DOAA), Ministry of
Industry and Primary Resources, Brunei Darussalam and CABI Southeast & East Asia
(hereafter referred as CABI) signed a contract agreement for CABI to assist Brunei in the
implementation of the Brunei IPM2 project. This 3-year project, funded under 2007-2012
National Development Plan of Brunei Darussalam, is aimed at minimizing the use of
hazardous pesticides on economic crops in the country. Primarily, the project would
formulate and develop IPM practices that promote environmental-friendly principles of pest
control on rice and vegetable crops based on reduction and reduced reliance on pesticides.
Also included would be raising farmer awareness and understanding of these problems and
how they can be avoided through extensive education program on IPM, safe use of pesticides,
pesticide application techniques, use of natural enemies and biological control, and also
upgrading DOAA capacity in insect pest taxonomy and collection management. Most of
these will be achieved through human resource development program by upgrading the skills
and expertise of the research and extension staff of DOAA and other stakeholders.
The consultancy project will be carried out over 3 years and will involve 8 (eight) major
activities that includes:
 Study visit for 7 (seven) DAA officers to institutions, orchards and farms to learn the
principles of IPM, biological control programs, especially mass rearing of biocontrol
agents, farmer participatory training & research (FPTR) in farmer field schools (FFS),
safe use of pesticides and the use of bio-based approach to pest management, and
familiarization with farm certification schemes.
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Preparing implementation strategy and a detailed work-plan (short, medium and long
term) for various activities related to IPM and insect identification and collection
management programmes.
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Developing IPM programme for rice and vegetables of economic importance at farm
levels including research to test the effective application of IPM technologies and
tools in IPM model farm.
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Initiate and conduct research and development activities on biological pest control
program including survey and development of an inventory of key natural enemies of
horticultural and field crop pests.
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Conduct master trainer’s training on pesticide application techniques (PAT) for rice
and vegetables and production of a PAT Training Manual.
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Conduct master trainer’s course on discovery learning for IPM and production of an
IPM discovery learning training manual.
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Rehabilitation and development of insect pest collection activities by a) refurbishment
and consolidations of available insect collections; b) conduct training course in
curatorial techniques and collection management; c) conduct training courses in insect
taxonomy and identification using internationally recognised documented protocol for
future references ; and d) developing good insect pest information and database
management system.
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Building specific skills in identification, diagnosis and detection of major insect pests
and natural enemies (parasites and predators).
The expected outcomes and benefits from the project among others include:
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The DOAA officers involved familiarized with the implementation of IPM and
biological control techniques.
Baseline data on pest problems associated with rice and vegetables identified,
compiled and published and IPM strategies for rice and vegetables recommended.
Training manuals on discovery learning of IPM and on biological control of insect
pests prepared
Improved awareness and knowledge on safer use of pesticide and PAT among
agriculture officers and farmers by applying pesticides safely and efficiently.
Improvement in the storing of available specimen collection, level of identification,
number of properly identified specimens; and a useful database of specimens is
available.
The DOAA officers, especially the Pest Control Unit is now capable of identifying
insect pests of major crops grown in Brunei up to species level
The successful implementation of this project will further enhance farmer’s ability to
manage and control pests effectively sustaining crop yield and supporting the national
food security and safety program.
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The Phase 1 Report is covering the 6 (six) schedules of activities implemented from February
to August 2011 as follows:
1. Project Inception Meeting (Activity 1-a, Schedule 2 of the Agreement).
2. Study Visit to Thailand (Activity 1-f, Schedule 2 of the Agreement).
3. Survey to record and collect phytophagous mites for identification and preparing
manual (Activity 1-b, Schedule 2 of the Agreement).
4. Working with relevant DOAA officers to refurbish and consolidate available insect
collection (Activity 2-a, Schedule 2 of the Agreement).
5. Organizing a training course on survey techniques for fruit-fly (Activity 2-f, Schedule
2 of the Agreement).
6. Conducting IPM Fact-finding Workshop and collating information on IPM (Activity
1-e, Schedule 2 of the Agreement).
2. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT
2.1.
Project Inception Meeting
The Project Inception Meeting was held at the meeting room of DOAA, Kilanas on 16th
February 2011. The objectives of the meeting are to assess the availability of resource
capacity at DOAA especially the Plant Pests Unit and to discuss on the proposed
implementation plan and requirement for each activity of the Project. Areas of discussion
included the following topics:
 current local knowledge and information gaps on IPM in rice and vegetables,
 preparations and logistics for the national surveys on insect pests of rice and
vegetables,
 the current status of insect collections & related information, and preparations
required to re-organize this to meet the needs of the project, i.e. to serve the
development of national host-pest list.
The meeting was attended by:
 Ms. Fuziah Hj. Hamdan, Assistant Director and Head, Crop Development Division,
DOAA
 Mr. Jomari Hj. Ahmad, Head of Crop Protection Division, DOAA
 Ms. Suzzanie Lim, Plant Pathologist, Plant Pathology Laboratory, DOAA
 Dr. Trevor Crosby, CABI Associate (Curator, NZ Arthropod Collection, Auckland,
New Zealand), and
 Dr. Soetikno S. Sastroutomo, Project Leader and Senior Scientist, CABI Southeast &
East Asia, Serdang, Malaysia.
Several decisions and amendments related to the implementation of project activities and
its starting dates for each activity were made. The report of the Project Inception Meeting
is given in ANNEX 1.
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2.2. Study Visit to Thailand
A study trip was organized for 7 (seven) DOAA officers to Thailand from 15-21 May
2011 with the objectives of:
 To learn the principles of IPM, safe use of pesticides and the use of bio-based
approach to pest management, familiarization with farm certification schemes
currently used in Thailand, including visits to participating farms.
 To visit institution(s) implementing biological control programs, especially mass
rearing of biocontrol agents, and make visits to observe IPM programmes in action,
including operational mass rearing facilities and farmer participatory training &
research (FPTR) in farmer field schools (FFS,) where discovery learning
methodology is applied.
 To visit insect pest collection museums to observe operational and management
details of such collections
The study visit was accompanied by Ms. Sue Mei Jean, Scientist of CABI SEA and was
locally coordinated by Dr. Areepan Upanisakorn, Director of Biological Control Subdivision, Pest Management Division, Department of Agriculture Extension (DOAE),
Bangkok, Thailand. The full report of the study visit is given in ANNEX 2.
2.3. Survey to record and collect phytophagous mites for identification and
preparing manual
The 1st visit of Mr. Yusof Othman (and his assistance) for this activity was organized
from 4-8 April 2011 with the objectives of:
 to collect mites on major fruits and vegetables in Brunei Darussalam in preparing
slides and specimens for the phytophagous mites identification training workshop
 to provide hands-on training on the collection of phytophagous mites on host plants
The surveys have been conducted in 6 (six) locations on 5 different types of vegetables
and 12 different fruits. The mite samples were collected from vegetables e.g. chillies and
long beans; fruits e.g. citrus, longan, coconut, papaya, mango and rambutan; and cutflowers, e.g. orchids, ixora and roses at Mukim Pengkalan Batu, Mukim Gadong and
from BARC research station. A hands-on training were also given to the project
counterparts (DOAA officers) on identification of damage symptoms by mites, mite
collections on plant parts using fine brush technique and data collection as required in the
SPM No. 8 standard.
So far, 200 (two hundred) mite slides have been prepared and the ID showed that there
are 21 (twenty one) species of mites found mainly from the family Tetranychidae and
genus Tetranychus. Twelve specimens have been identified to species level and 9 (nine)
specimens up to genus level only. The un-identified specimens have been sent to mite
taxonomist for further identification up to species level. The full report of the mite
surveys is given in ANNEX 3.
2.4. Working with relevant DOAA officers to refurbish and consolidate available
insect collection
Two entomological trips have been organized by Dr. Trevor Crosby, CABI Associate
(currently Curator, NZ Arthropod Collection, Auckland, New Zealand) i.e. from 15-21
February (1st trip) and from 31 May to 6 June 2011 (2nd trip). The objective of the 1st visit
was to assess the status of current insect collection at DOAA, available facilities, and the
equipment/supplies needed for the activities that have been proposed in the project
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Agreement. The objective of the 2nd visit is to provide an introduction to curation of
collections, and to visit two other insect collections, i.e. Brunei Museum Collection and
UBD Biological Sciences Collection.
Most of the specimens in the collection of DOAA (BARC), especially collected from the
1970s and early 1980s are all in good condition. The identification of species is of high
quality, as they were done by the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology (CIE) which
now is CABI. Dr. Crosby is in the opinion that the DOAA/BARC Collection is of
ASEAN Regional significance, as it is one of the few collections in the region that has
high quality identified specimens of agricultural significance. About 1,200 specimens
appeared to have been identified with most of the specimens taken from agricultural
areas. The full reports of the 1st and 2nd trips are given in ANNEX 4.
2.5.Training course on survey techniques for fruit-fly
The 1st visit of Mr. Mokhtar Hj. Idrus and Mr. Shaharuddin Shariff (CABI Associates)
was organized from 3-8 July 2011 with the main objective to train DOAA officers on
fruit-fly surveillance (how to use hand-held GPS and ArcView GIS data management
system), trapping and identification. Twenty nine participants from different sections of
DOAA were participated in the training. At the end of the training most of participants
are able to:
 print out maps of Brunei easily with the legends, keys, etc.
 establish 226 fruit-fly trapping points (2 traps/point) set at 5 Km grid covering the
whole area of Brunei;
 produce a fruit-fly GIS database system.
The full report on this activity is given in ANNEX 5.
2.6.IPM Fact-finding Workshop and collating information on IPM
CABI consultant team comprising of Drs. Soetikno S. Sastroutomo (who is responsible
for overall project coordination and management), Lim Guan Soon and Sivapragasam
Annamalai (for all technical activities, with the former taking the lead) visited DOAA
Brunei to organize the IPM Fact-finding Meeting from 18-20 July 2011. The objectives of
the meeting were to:
 ascertain current local knowledge and IPM information gaps, as well as identify and
prioritise target crops and pests for development of IPM as alternative to current
pesticide subsidy policy
 review literature and collate information needed for formulation of IPM programmes
for the target crops/pests agreed in the Participatory Planning Workshop.
 gather relevant and practical IPM control tactics.
Dr. Lim G.S. gave a brief presentation on the objectives of the meeting and then followed
by presentations from relevant DOAA officers on:
 Overview of the rice industry in Brunei Darussalam (Ms Khairunnisa bte Hj Omar
Ali)
 Overview of the vegetable industry in Brunei Darussalam (Ms Normah bte Tuah)
 Major rice pests and diseases in Brunei Darussalam (Mr. Jomari Hj. Ahmad)
 Major vegetable pests and diseases in Brunei Darussalam (Mr. Jomari Hj. Ahmad)
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Field visits were also made to rice and vegetable production areas with objectives to appraise
pest problems and to identify potential sites for future project studies. For vegetables the
areas visited are:
 Syarikat HJ Zainal Sapar, Ladang Betumpu, Brunei Muara.
 Hua Ho Agriculture Farm, Ladang SiBongkok, Kg Pengkalan batu, Brunei Muara
(Mr Kaya, supervisor from Sabah)
And for rice production areas they have visited:
 Wasan Padi Project, MPM (Majlis Perundingan Mukim), Pengkalan Batu Brunei
Muara (Farmers/Growers: Hj. Yakub Hj Othman, Speaker during the meeting, Hj
Yahya Hj Jumat & Hj. Johari Mundim.
 Wasan Padi Project owned by KOSEKA, Cooperative for Retired Army officers,
Wasan Padi Project, Brunei Muara (Farmers/Growers: Col Ret Hj Sahlan Hj Hidup).
Based on the presentations, including the interactions thereof, and findings from farmer
interviews and observations in the field, a number of issues needing further reflection have
been identified as follows:
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Presently the farmers rely primarily on chemical pesticides for pest control.
The application of pesticides is normally done on a prophylactic basis.
Currently, there exists no significant biological control progarmmes and no attention
given to it as part of general pest management measures. However, preliminary
studies on Tricoderma sp. are being attempted.
 In the case of disease management, farmers generally do not practice sanitary
measures such as destroying infected crop which serves as reservoir of the pathogenic
organisms and a source of disease inoculum to nearby farms.
 In general, farmers and the extension staff have no/limited understanding of the pest’s
ecology they are involved with.
 Presently, there appears to be no comprehensive IPM programmes for the key
pests/diseases.
The full report on the IPM Fact-finding Meeting is given in ANNEX 6.
3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Project Team is especially grateful to the Project Officer, Mr. Jomari Hj Ahmad, Head of
Plant Pests Unit, BARC, DOAA for useful inputs, discussions, direction and various
assistance in ensuring all the activities within the Phase One were executed to completion as
planned.
Special thanks are due to the staff of Plant Pests Unit: Mr. Jomari Hj Ahmad, Hj Mohd
Sofian bin Hj Muhd Za’im, Muslim bin Hj Lamit and Hj Roslan bin Hj Pudin for their active
participation, deep interest and invaluable support throughout the Phase One of the Project.
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