Pest Control on Site
Introduction
In organic agriculture, it is understood as integrated pest management (IPM), integrated/comprehensive pest control (CIP), ecological pest management (MEP), natural pest management or zero waste agriculture;[1] a strategy that uses a wide variety of complementary methods: physical, mechanical, chemical, biological, genetic, legal and cultural for pest control. It is an ecological method that aims to eliminate the use of pesticides and minimize the impact on the environment.
These methods are applied in three stages: prevention, observation and application.
To constitute organic agriculture, the non-use of pesticides must be accompanied by non-intensity of cultivation, avoiding the use of synthetic fertilizers.
Entomologists Perry Adkisson") and Ray F. Smith") received the World Food Prize in 1997 for their outreach and leadership work in spreading integrated pest management.
History
Shortly after World War II, when insecticides began to be used on a large scale, entomologists in California developed the concept of supervised insect management. At the same time, entomologists in Arkansas promoted a similar strategy. According to this scheme, insect control was supervised by qualified entomologists and insecticide applications were carried out following conclusions based on periodic sampling of the pest population and that of its natural enemies. This was seen as an alternative to calendar-based pesticide applications. Supervised control was based on knowledge of ecology and an analysis of the projection of population rates of pests and their natural enemies.
Supervised control was one of the conceptual pillars of integrated management developed by Californian entomologists in the 1950s. Integrated management aimed to identify the best combination of chemical and biological controls for a specific pest. Chemical insecticides were to be used in the manner that caused the least disruption of biological controls. The term integrated was thus synonymous with compatible. Chemical controls could be applied only after regular sampling indicated that the pest had reached a certain level (economic threshold) that required treatment to prevent the population from reaching a harmful level (economic damage level) at which the economic losses exceeded the costs of artificial control measures.