Abstract
Small-scale farms are an important component of agricultural production even in developed economies, and have an acknowledged role in providing other biological and societal benefits, including the conservation of agricultural biodiversity and enhancement of local food security. Despite this, the small-farm sector is currently underserved in relation to the development and implementation of scale-appropriate Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices that could help increase such benefits. This review details some of the characteristics of the small farm sectors in developed economies (with an emphasis on the USA and Europe), and identifies some of the characteristics of small farms and their operators that may favor the implementation of IPM. Some of the challenges and opportunities associated with increasing the uptake of IPM in the small-farm sector are discussed. For example, while some IPM tactics are equally applicable to virtually any scale of production, there are others that may be easier (or more cost-effective) to implement on a smaller scale. Conversely, there are approaches that have not been widely applied in small-scale production, but which nevertheless have potential for use in this sector. Examples of such tactics are discussed. Knowledge gaps and opportunities for increasing IPM outreach to small-scale producers are also identified.
Highlights
Sixty years after the concept of ‘integrated control’ was first introduced by Stern et al [1], the field of ‘integrated pest management’ (IPM) has expanded beyond the original vision of those authors to embrace chemical and biological control, but a wide variety of additional approaches to pest suppression
Making use of sites of this kind for programs such as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)-APHIS Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) might result in higher levels of interception of target species than surveillance conducted on larger-scale commercial farms that may be more remote from major transportation routes, grow fewer crops, and/or use higher levels of pesticides
This review has highlighted some of the principal characteristics of small-scale farms in developed economies, and examined how some of these factors have contributed to challenges faced by this sector in relation to IPM adoption and implementation
Summary
Sixty years after the concept of ‘integrated control’ was first introduced by Stern et al [1], the field of ‘integrated pest management’ (IPM) has expanded beyond the original vision of those authors to embrace chemical and biological control, but a wide variety of additional approaches to pest suppression. A recent survey in the European Union, for example, showed that two-thirds of all farms were less than 5 hectares in size [2], while, in the US, slightly more than half of all farms are reported to be ‘very small’, with annual farm sales of under $10,000 [3]. Such farms make a significant contribution to food production and local food security: on a global basis, it is estimated that approximately 30% of the world’s food supply is produced on farms less than 2 ha in size [4]. Pest management tactics that are considered applicable to large or small-scale production are omitted
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