IPM Packages for Crops

introduction

F or nearly 30 years, the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management has been implementing integrated pest management (IPM) practices around the world. IPM is an environmentally-sensitive approach to crop management that relies on a combination of common-sense farming practices. One of the IPM Innovation Lab’s most successful and long-stand- ing initiatives is development of the IPM Package. Given the range of conditions, resources, and skills available in any com- munity, farmers must find crop production strategies that not only produce positive results, but fit seamlessly into their lives. The IPM Package can help them achieve this. IPM Packages outline insect pests, diseases, viruses, and threats that a crop faces, and offers IPM techniques that can be used to combat those threats. IPM packages are seldom applied in full, but farmers select individual technologies when needed. The packages are designed so that technologies can be adopted in a targeted location for a specific pest complex. Farmers who have implemented IPM Package components while planting, growing, and harvesting, and throughout the supply chain, have observed enhanced yields, increased income, reduced reliance on chemical pesticides, and overall profitability. As globalization increases, environments are changing. Invasive species spread continues to impact native growth, while erratic weather conditions change the way systems operate. With that, farmers – especially those working within resource-con- strained communities – must be prepared to address the current and emerging threats to their fields without compromising their health, production, or economic well-being. “It’s important to remember,” said Muni Muniappan, Director of the IPM Innovation Lab, “that the work we do to protect our crops, farmers, and livelihoods in one country can benefit the entire world. IPM Packages meet farmers where they are and prepare them for surpassing crop production demands of the future.” Over the last three decades, the IPM Innovation Lab has worked in West and East Africa; Eastern Europe; Central, South, and Southeast Asia; and Latin America and the Caribbean. This booklet outlines major crops grown in many of those countries, the threats those crops face, and the IPM Packages that can be used to combat them.

This brochure was created and distributed by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management (IPM IL). It was made possible through the United States Agency for International Development and the generous support of the American people through USAID Cooperative Agreement No. AID-OAA-L-15-00001