Integrated Pest Management Approaches

Abstract

Integrated pest management (IPM) is an internationally recognized approach to pest and disease control. IPM embraces diversity, is knowledge intensive, and varies by crop, scale, and geographical location. All farmers practice IPM to some degree, including the cultural control techniques that underpin all good farming practices. In reality, most farming practice is neither IPM nor non-IPM, but can be defined at a point along the so-called IPM continuum from chemically intensive systems to bio-intensive systems. IPM was initially conceptualized to reduce dependence on pesticides and their effects on the environment. It has been built into virus control strategies from the beginning of plant virology because of the known in vivo insensitivity of viruses to chemical agents. Several methodologies are available for implementing IPM for Bemisia tabaci populations: chemical control with selective insecticides, biological control, crop plant resistance, and physical/mechanical methods. Insecticides, by their poisonous nature, are often harmful to natural enemies and therefore are disruptive to overall pest management. However, the more modern materials that are effective for B. tabaci control are relatively specific to the target pests and therefore less harmful to natural enemies and the environment; consequently, they are also more suitable for integrative combination with other methods. Conventional IPM technologies, such as intercropping, will yield mixed results with little, if any, beneficial impact on pest population in crops. This chapter reviews the known measures used for reducing populations of B. tabaci, advocating the view that only a comprehensive approach incorporating IPM programs will offer effective and sustainable strategies for managing whiteflies.