Pest Management

Integrated pest management (IPM) involves coordinating crop management practices with pest management techniques to achieve economical and sustainable control of pest problems. The goal of an IPM program is to protect the crop from economic damage while interfering as little as possible with the long-term viability of the production system. The most reliable way to do this is to anticipate pest problems and prevent them whenever possible. When pesticides are needed, materials and application methods that are effective, economical, and have a minimum of harmful side effects should be used. Key management methods include

• clean and/or certified seed
• resistant cultivars
• field sanitation
• crop rotation
• residue management
• proper cultural practices (timing and amounts of irrigation, fertilization, etc.)