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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Southern Insect Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #391558
Research Project: Insect Control and Resistance Management in Corn, Cotton, Sorghum, Soybean, and Sweet Potato, and Alternative Approaches to Tarnished Plant Bug Control in the Southern United States

Location: Southern Insect Management Research

Title: Recent advances and challenges in implementing IPM programs in the Indian subcontinent

Author
item GEEDI, RUCHIKA - THE MAHARAJA SAYAJIRAO UNIVERSITY OF BARODA
item Reddy, Gadi V.P.

Submitted to: Indian Journal of Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/21/2022
Publication Date: 10/28/2022
Citation: Geedi, R., Reddy, G.V. 2022. Recent advances and challenges in implementing IPM programs in the Indian subcontinent. Indian Journal of Entomology. 84:1-15. https://doi.org/10.55446/IJE.2022.807.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55446/IJE.2022.807

Interpretive Summary: The injudicious use of pesticides leads to a hazardous impact on the environment and mankind. To reduce the impact of pesticides, alternative approaches to need to be implemented in IPM and sustainable agricultural research. Biologicals, Microbials and Semiochemicals are used as alternatives in IPM systems. However, to implement these alternatives, farmers need to face several challenges. To overcome those challenges, proper knowledge about the new techniques and pest ecology will be incorporated between farmers and stakeholders. Adequate support for plant protection research is essential to meet the challenges of producing healthy food from the available land with a minimal adverse effect on the environment. This can be achieved through the development of a consortium approach by involving international organizations, national agricultural research and extension systems, non-governmental agencies, and farmers in the research agenda to meet the needs.

Technical Abstract: Integrated pest management programs (IPM) are based on using multiple methods to maintain pests at tolerant levels in the cropping system. Recent advances in IPM in developed countries have incorporated biological pesticides, microbial products, semiochemicals, and beneficial insects, but fewer such programs have been successfully implemented in developing countries like India. Semiochemicals have played important roles as signals in various interspecific and intraspecific interactions between insects, plants, and microbes. IPM programs have included mechanical, chemical, cultural, and biological control strategies in India. However, biological control can be used in a limited way. IPM scientists in India work most commonly on specific individual crops, assessing pest damage severity and efficacy of specific control measures. However, very few government institutes or commercial companies are engaged in developing and commercializing biological pesticides or semiochemicals. Government institutes exist with a focus on research on pheromones of lepidopteran and coleopteran insects. Developing IPM programs requires understanding crop development, pest biology and dynamics, and their interactions. It also requires local knowledge of available control tactics. Moreover, IPM programs have not been widely adopted in developing countries due to lack of proper training for farmers about IPM, lack of farmers knowledge about the IPM practices, need for much more labor and complexity of IPM practices which slow down the use of good IPM programs. Here, we review the historical development of IPM efforts in India and ask whether this concept remains suited to present-day crop production challenges. Specifically, we discuss factors identified as obstacles to the more widespread adoption of IPM and ways of overcoming such barriers.