Assessment of Implementation and Sustainability of Integrated Pest Management Programs

Abstract

All parties involved in growing the world's food, including growers, crop consultants, university researchers, extension personnel, national and regional regulatory agencies, and the agrochemical and seed industry, spend significant time, money, and effort to solve the problems associated with growing food. The needs of these parties are varied and sometimes in conflict, which is not always conducive to developing and implementing integrated pest management (IPM) systems that are both sustainable and economical. IPM encompasses simultaneous management of multiple pests, regular monitoring of pests and their natural enemies and antagonists, use of economic or treatment thresholds when applying pesticides, and integrated use of multiple, suppressive tactics. IPM components with the greatest impact on resistance management are rotating classes of chemistry, use of recommended rates, not exceeding label restrictions, and avoiding sequential treatments of products with the same mode of action. The best way to insure that these components are followed is to have pesticide record keeping and reporting. However, pesticide use record keeping and reporting are not currently required in all areas. Other activities that can be integrated include educational workshops on IPM, resistance monitoring of pests to pesticides, proper identification of pests and natural enemies, real time scouting reports on the pests that are being found, maintenance of a data base on the effects of various products on natural enemies, and field validation of IPM use.

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