Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
IPM (Integrated Pest Management):- IPM is that method of pest control, which utilizes all suitable techniques of pest control to reduce pest populations and maintain them below economic injury level.
Principles of IPM:-
> IPM is a decision-making process that helps to prevent pest problems.
> With IPM programs, all information and treatment methods are considered in order to manage pests.
> This should be effective, affordable, and safe for the environment.
> Elements of any IPM program include:
i. Prevention:- Organisms are kept from becoming problems by planning and managing ecosystems.
ii. Identification:- Pests and beneficial organisms are identified.
iii. Monitoring:- Pest and beneficial organism’s populations are watched, as well as pest damage, and the environment.
iv. Injury and Action Decision:- Injury and action thresholds are used to know when to treat pests.
v. Treatments:- Treatments (or a combination) are used, including cultural, biological, physical, mechanical, behavioural, or chemical methods. The goal is to control pests with little impact on the environment.
vi. Evaluation:- The effectiveness of pest management plans are considered.
Advantages of IPM include:-
> Long-term answers to pest problems.
> Protecting environmental and human health by reducing pesticide use.
> Reducing harm to beneficial organisms.
> Preventing creation of pesticide resistant pests.
> Providing a way to manage pests when pesticides cannot be used.
Components of IPM:- Various components and techniques that can be utilized in Integrated Pest Management programmes are as follows:
1. Cultural control:- Use of resistant varieties of crops is a promising technique in IPM. Moderately to low level of resistance is best integrated with chemical and biocontrol agents. Crop rotation and sanitation are also used to reduce the pest population to lower levels.
2. Mechanical control:- Use of screens or barriers or handpicking in nursery stage of the crops and use of light traps to kill egg-laying adults can bring down the population for the other methods to be effective.
3. Biological control:- Natural enemies are commonly utilized in IPM programmes. Emphasis is given to protection and augmentation of indigenous natural enemies and recolonisation of those that have been wiped out due to indiscriminate use of insecticides.
4. Chemical control:- Minimal use of insecticides is recommended in IPM. Rule of the thumb is not to use insecticides unless absolutely necessary. Application methods that do not bring insecticides in contact with natural enemies are favoured in IPM programmes.
5. Regulatory methods:- Plant and animal quarantines by the government and collective eradication and suppression in large areas help in providing long-lasting management. International efforts to suppress noxious pests like locusts have proved fruitful.
Note:- In most of the cases, chemical, biological and varietal resistances are combined to manage the population of pest species.
Examples of IPM:-
1. Cotton pest control in Peru:-
> Developed by Wille (1951) in Canete Valley which is a self-contained ecosystem surrounded by arid areas.
> Due to extensive use of organic insecticides and subsequent resistance developed by the cotton pests, the valley was led to the brink of disaster.
> The following steps were taken to save the crops:
i. Prohibition of ratooning.
ii. Prohibition of synthetic organic insecticides and return to the old calcium and lead arsenates and nicotine sulphates.
iii. Repopulation of the area with; natural enemies introduced from the surrounding regions.
iv. Establishment of deadlines for planting, ploughing, irrigation, pruning and harvesting.
v. Employment of cultural practices, which led to the establishment of healthy, uniform stands.
> As a result of this IPM programme, the pest problem was solved and the whole agro-ecosystem twined into a self-balanced system.
2. Integrated Pest Management in Paddy:- FAO developed an intercountry programme for IPM in South and Southeast Asia by integrating biological, chemical and cultural control methods.
3. Integrated Pest Management in Sugarcane:-
> Chemical control is not successful in sugarcane fields because of technical and mechanical problems of insecticide applications and also insecticide contamination eventually reaching humans.
> Integration of biological contraol, particularly the egg parasite, Trichogramma species and modification of cultural practices has been found to keep the pest densities below economic injury levels.
4. Integrated control of locusts:-
> FAO undertakes constant surveillance throughout the breeding areas and follows the following IPM programme:
- Eggs are destroyed by ploughing or flooding (mechanical control).
- Nymphs are controlled either by direct spraying by aircrafts or by barrier spraying, baiting, trenching or burning by flame-throwers.
- Repellents like neem-oil are sprayed on crop at the time of swarming.
- Swarms are either sprayed while resting on ground or by aircrafts while migrating.
- Some biological control is achieved by conserving predators in the breeding grounds.