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THE PHILIPPINES

THE PHILIPPINES Asian farmers are learning a new lesson: killing insects that eat up the leaves in their paddy fields is a futile opearation, because the pests make little difference to the rice yield. "You can remove half a plant's leaves and it will make the same amount of rice," explains Kong Luen Heong, a researcher Working with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines.

The IRRI, is'- carrying on in-depth research in a bid to prove to farmers that they should cut down on the unnecessary use of chemicals such as pesticides. The scientists have already succeeded in winning over a section of Vietnamese farmers who possess land in the fertile Mekong delta. The farmers agreed not to spray pesticides on parts of their crops as an experiment, discovered that the unsprayed land gave normal yields and urged their more sceptical neighbours to adopt the same method. Now more than half the farmers in the delta province have got the message.

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