What is an Integrated Pest and Disease Management Plan?
An IPM Plan (Integrated Pest Management Plan) is a document that considers all the monitoring and pest control measures for a single crop. For every one of these plans are established critic thresholds to compare all the sampling results coming from field sampling for every pest and disease declared with economic importance and justify a control application. In case the sampling results indicates that population for a specific pest or disease is lower than the critic threshold is better not to apply.
Why is it important an accurate design for IPM plans?
There are several reasons because it is very important to plan well one of these IPM plans. Even the most criterias are techincal due the bugs cannog simply be wiped away from our crops; insted agriculture implicates having really clear that is not possible 'delete' the pests and diseases, but to handle their populations through some practices -not only by phitosanitary products applications- to keep them under economic damage thershold.
A well designed IPM plan must follow guidelines ruled primary by pests and diseases sampling which must consider proper peridiocity according the crop cycle, training of the worker acting as surveryor who must identify (a) pests, (b) diseases and if possible (c) nutrition problems and nutrients deficiencies.
Advantages of a well designed IPM plan
- To minimize the chace of overcost due unnecesary phitosanitary products applications.
- Establishment of an adecquate phitosanitary products rotation with different action mode or active ingredient for the same pest or disease, reducing in this way resistant development possibility.
- Antagonistic effects considerations to be taken when drench or foliar applications mixes are planned.
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