| Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a strategy which
encourages beneficial insects to help control harmful pests in commercial
crops.
Harmful pests are kept below a threshold
limit where they have only an minor affect on crop quality and yield.
 IPM is seen as the "way of the future" as it addresses growing public awareness of the health risks from applying strong chemicals to control insect pests on food crops.
IPM considers all growing and cultural practices that could affect the
pest population. By changing the way crops are grown, the overall number
of pests can be controlled.
Integrated Pest Management is a central theme in crop production around
the world and promises to address community concerns over misuse of pesticides.
The move toward IPM in Australian vegetable crops
is still fairly recent but there are already some success
stories
IPM is a process of continual improvement but is not yet widely practiced
due mainly to community demand for produce with ZERO insects ... even
beneficial ones.
IPM can become part of a fully integrated farm management
system beginning with management strategies for a single key
insect pest, usually after conventional insecticides have failed to adequately
Once successful strategies are developed for the major
pest, the focus shifts on to controlling other pests.
IPM
Technologies led by Dr Paul Horne, is the principal provider
of IPM services in Victoria
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