Integrated Pest Management – box ticking or a genuine win:win?

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is high on the political agenda and the need to roll out more integrated system of crop production is enshrined in the EU’s ‘Sustainable Use Directive’. 

However, while IPM is often hailed as the potential saviour of our intensive arable systems, experience at Scotland’s Rural College has shown that even the initials can switch off many farmers and growers.
 
Professor Fiona Burnett, head of crop and soil systems research at SRUC, said this need not be the case, but accepts there is a job to done in terms of demystifying IPM and looking for the win:wins that aid productive cropping, whilst minimising negative effects on the environment.
 
She has been working with colleagues to understand how growers and other stakeholders with interests in the environment perceive and understand IPM. They found that people are genuinely confused about what IPM is, what measures it covers and how it can be applied in a Scottish and individual context.
 
“Surveys and workshops with growers and other interested parties show that the concept of IPM is often very fuzzy and that there is often a cynicism about what benefits it can bring,” she said.
 
The overarching concept behind integrated pest management is to take a whole farm approach to managing the land over which you make decisions. The aim is one that almost everyone can buy into, namely maximising the efficiency of production whilst minimising negative effects on the environment.
 
“It goes wider than just thinking about pesticide reductions although that should be a positive selling point to all stakeholders too,” suggested Professor Burnett. “The public find pesticides contentious, but no grower wants to use them more than they need to either.”
 
All the practices that minimise pest, weed and disease risk can be part of an IPM plan, including the use of crop rotation, appropriate cultivation techniques, using resistant varieties, tailored and efficient use of artificial inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides and fossil fuels and the enhancement of wildlife habitats. Crop walking, pest monitoring and the use of thresholds for treatment are all components in reducing reliance on pesticides.
 
The benefits of applying integrated practices such as really tailoring sprays to the actual risks come through maximizing the effectiveness of crop protection on farms and reduce the use of unnecessary extra inputs.
 
“It’s important to take the long view,” added Professor Burnett. “With the use of well planned rotations for example you can reduce the pest, disease and weed burden on your enterprise. 
 
“At a very basic level, anything done on the farm to reduce waste and improve your business practice and productivity is part of an integrated management plan. Good practice and good pesticide stewardship are key components of IPM practices so anything that can be done to improve this is helpful.”
 
It can be helpful to think of IPM in terms of the things you can plan for pre-season and then the things you can do during the season. 
 
What are the major problems on your farm that you need to target? Can these be minimised by say testing fields and avoiding infected areas? Can you use varieties with better resistance to your major recurring problems or could you lengthen rotations or grow more break crops to help the problem? 
 
Crop walking pre treatment lets you pick not just the most appropriate treatment to what you are seeing but also to apply it at the best and most effective timing. Post treatment checking to see how it worked is also important and can guide your next inputs. 
 
You can also react to wider information sources and weather data and disease monitoring data that can warn you of building risks. The adopt-a-crop scheme run at SRUC as part of the Scottish Government’s crop health activity is one such example (www.sruc.ac.uk/crops). 
 
Membership of environmental schemes and activities which promote habitats for birds and insects are a final key component.
 
SRUC is actively researching alternatives to pesticides and a series of articles looking at all the component parts listed above and describing their potential and the progress made will follow in future editions of The Scottish Farmer.