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Integrated Pest Management
Integrated Pest
Management (IPM) is a common-sense method that
builds on practices that farmers have used for
centuries, for example, using varieties resistant to
pests, altering time of sowing and harvest, hoeing,
removing crop residues and using botanical pesticides
(eg neem and tobacco extracts). The name, IPM, goes back
at least to the 1960s. In 1967, FAO defined IPM as 'a
pest management system that, in the context of the
associated environment and the population dynamics of
the pest species, utilizes all suitable techniques in as
compatible a manner as possible and maintains the pest
population at levels below those causing economic
injury'. It seeks to reduce pest populations to
economically manageable levels through a combination of
cultural control (eg crop rotation, inter-cropping),
physical controls (hand picking of pests, use of
pheromones to trap pests), and less toxic chemical
controls.
However, it allows the use of chemical pesticides, even
synthetic and toxic ones, when there is a need. IPM
techniques are specific to the agro-ecological
production conditions in any given location, and may
involve the use of pesticides. As a result, few general
principles can be applied and no absolute standards set
for production.
In Pakistan, research on IPM has a fairly long history.
This was initiated as early as 1971 at the PARC research
station in Rawalpindi, first as a seven year PL-480
funded project on bollworms, and a 3-year PL-480 project
on the whitefly, and an institutional support project on
integrated pest management, funded by the Asian
Development Bank.
However, these projects have not had a serious impact on
production methods. A major reason is the limited nature
of the project, without efforts to mainstream it in the
functioning of the major research institutions,
especially the system of cotton research institutes.
Second, the extension system is not equipped to handle
results from the IPM research, since there are hardly
any avenues for training of extension staff in this
technology. Finally, the educational institutions
(especially the entomology departments of agriculture
universities) do not provide training or specialization
in IPM, to ensure a steady stream of experts for
staffing research, education, and extension departments.
Today, the number of institutions that influence
agricultural allocation decisions runs into scores if
not hundreds. To list only the most prominent of these,
the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC), the system
of Cotton Research Institutes (CRIs), the Pakistan
Agricultural Research Council system, the Textile
Commissioner, the Agricultural Prices Commission, the
Federal Seed Certification Department (FCSD), various
agricultural universities, and the Export Promotion
Bureau (EPB). The country has 4,000 agricultural
scientists, 500 agricultural extension agents, and
proportional numbers of officials in seed certification
and supply, agricultural machinery provision, policy
development and agricultural pricing, and agricultural
credit, all in the public sector.
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