Integrated Pest Management Reduces Pesticides and Production Costs of Vegetables and Soybean in Indonesia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sur veys and field studies to support the Indonesian National Integrated Pest Man age ment (IPM) Program were carried out on selected second aryfoodcrops (soy bean, cab bage, shal lots, chilies, and longbean). Field surveys identified several new records and spe cies of patho gens and parasites. In soy bean, late-planted cropssuffered more dam age by Etiella spp. and Helicoverpa armigera than early-planted ones. Use of in secti cides caused populations of the in sectpests, Spodoptera litura and H. armigera, to resurge. Damage by H. armigera also in -creased with in creas ing in secti cide use. Studies in farm ers' fields and in ex per i mental plots revealed that stem fly, Melanagromyza sojae, damage caused slight yield losses only whenthe hypocotyl was at tacked and no correlation be tween use of in secticides and stem dam age could be detected. An IPM sys tem for cab bage, with ma jor compo nents consisting of hand-pick ing egg masses and lar val clus ters of Crocidolomia binotalis plusspot treat ments with Ba cil lus thuringiensis, was developed a n d should be practi cal in farm ers' fields. In shal lots, the microbial agent, a nu clear polyhedrosis virus ofSpodoptera exigua (SeNPV), was found in fields in West and East Java and farmer-level proce dures for producing and testing thevi rus were devel oped. Results from experimental plots and in farm ers' fields inthe Brebes area and in Alahan Panjang, showed that the SeNPV plus hand pick ing lar vaefrom the plants, pro vided better S. exigua controlthan chem i cal in secti cides. In chilies, in creas ing the height of the bed de creased the in ci dence of bacterial wilt. This could be impor tant in low ar eas with poor drainage. A new leafminer pest, Liriomyza huidobrensis, was de tected and field stud ies were car ried out to determine its natural enemies and sea sonal abun dance on crops. Potato was most se ri ously af fected. Only one major parasitoid, Hemiptarsenus varicornis, was de tected but the in ci dence of parasitism was low in potato. A classical biological control program issug gested. Over all results from field studies show that adop tion of IPM practices by farm erscan reduce costs of crop pro duction and con currently de crease hazards associated with pesticides while conserving natural enemies.