SEAMEO BIOTROP held a National Training Course on Integrated Storage Pest Management (ISPM) on 1-3 November 2011 held at its headquarter in Bogor, Indonesia. The training was attended by 37 participants from universities, government post-harvest research and development centers, seed and nursery center, Perum BULOG, and private companies dealing with food and feed processing, fumigant distribution, pest control, and pallet packaging industry.

The training course was aimed to equip the participants with the theory and practice of ISPM with the expectation that they could maintain the quality and safety of the commodities they manage while in storage.

In officially opening the training course, Dr. Irdika Mansur, SEAMEO BIOTROP Deputy Director for Resource Management and Communication, said that as people become more developed, their  demand also becomes high for high quality food which are free from live or dead insect pests and also from residues of pesticides/insecticides. Thus, he emphasized the urgent need for integrated storage pest management to minimize postharvest pest problems in storing commodities.

The training course consisted of lecture-discussions and practical works on the following topics: (1) Introduction to stored-product insect pests, (2) Integrated Storage Pest Management (ISPM), (3) Ecology and monitoring of stored-product insect pests, (4) Pesticide application in stored-product pest management, (5) Phosphine fumigation good practice, (6) Fumigation technique for sulfuryl  flouride, (7) Storage fungi on grains, and (8) Hermetic storage. One-day field trip was also conducted at PT Jakson Niagatama’s Gunung Putri warehouse Putri in Bogor for the participants to practice monitoring of insect stored product pests, insecticide application and  phosphine fumigation good practice. As a training course requirement, the participants formulated individual action plans which they are expected to apply in their respective work stations.

The results of training’s pre- and post-test indicated a siginificant increase in the knowledge and skills of the participants on the subject matter. 

Resource persons during the training course were Dr. Idham Sakti Harahap, Dr. Okky S. Dharmaputra, Mr. Sunjaya, and Mrs. Sri Widayanti from SEAMEO BIOTROP, Dr. Hariyadi Halid from Perum BULOG, Mr. Tony Kristianto from AGRI BUSINESS CLUB and  Mr. H. M. Rivai  from PT REBIO MEGA ARANDA. The training course was conducted in collaboration with PT Biotek Saranatama and PT Jakson Niagatama.

Dr. Idham Sakti Harahap, SEAMEO BIOTROP’s expert on stored product pest management, coordinated the training course.