TY - JOUR
T1 - Call for system-level integrated studies to increase the adoption of ‘green’ IPM tactics
AU - Han, Peng
AU - Rodriguez-Saona, Cesar
AU - Zalucki, Myron P.
AU - Wyckhuys, Kris A.G.
AU - Desneux, Nicolas
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The authors.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has made significant strides as an ecological and sustainable approach to managing insect pests in agriculture. However, despite widespread promotion in textbooks and publications, the adoption of ‘green’ tactics – whether biological, physical, biotechnological, or agronomic – has not met expectations in practice. Why is the adoption so limited, even with numerous effective individual strategies available? This is a challenging question, but researchers have started to provide some insights. In 2015, a consortium of scientists from the European network ENDURE (www.endure-network.eu) proposed eight principles for IPM. A central point they emphasized is the need for IPM practitioners to embrace the inherent complexity of developing sustainable crop protection strategies. Notably, in 2017, awareness of these complexities led to the emergence of a new conceptual framework for a more holistic and modern IPM science. This framework aimed to optimize the synergy between different IPM tactics, moving towards a truly integrated approach in practice. More recently, it has been argued that the current pest management science often overlooks the complexities of farming systems, and it is not geared towards a whole-sale transformation or redesign of current-day farming systems. Through bibliometric analyses, the authors demonstrated that many studies are conducted under simplified conditions – primarily in laboratories-where pest management tactics are routinely viewed as single-factor solutions instead of being treated in integrated manner i.e., as per the very definition of IPM. The lack of studies under complex, “real-world” conditions e.g. semi-field or open-field experi-ments, hinders our understanding of how different IPM strategies interact – whether synergistically, antagonistically, or neutrally. As a result, the technological readiness level of these ‘green’ tactics remains low and actionable information is infrequently generated. This slows their adoption by stakeholders who must manage the inherent complexities of real-world agricultural systems. It is the time to return to the original intent of IPM – true integration – by prioritizing integrated studies that better reflect the complexity of field conditions and even involve farmers.
AB - Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has made significant strides as an ecological and sustainable approach to managing insect pests in agriculture. However, despite widespread promotion in textbooks and publications, the adoption of ‘green’ tactics – whether biological, physical, biotechnological, or agronomic – has not met expectations in practice. Why is the adoption so limited, even with numerous effective individual strategies available? This is a challenging question, but researchers have started to provide some insights. In 2015, a consortium of scientists from the European network ENDURE (www.endure-network.eu) proposed eight principles for IPM. A central point they emphasized is the need for IPM practitioners to embrace the inherent complexity of developing sustainable crop protection strategies. Notably, in 2017, awareness of these complexities led to the emergence of a new conceptual framework for a more holistic and modern IPM science. This framework aimed to optimize the synergy between different IPM tactics, moving towards a truly integrated approach in practice. More recently, it has been argued that the current pest management science often overlooks the complexities of farming systems, and it is not geared towards a whole-sale transformation or redesign of current-day farming systems. Through bibliometric analyses, the authors demonstrated that many studies are conducted under simplified conditions – primarily in laboratories-where pest management tactics are routinely viewed as single-factor solutions instead of being treated in integrated manner i.e., as per the very definition of IPM. The lack of studies under complex, “real-world” conditions e.g. semi-field or open-field experi-ments, hinders our understanding of how different IPM strategies interact – whether synergistically, antagonistically, or neutrally. As a result, the technological readiness level of these ‘green’ tactics remains low and actionable information is infrequently generated. This slows their adoption by stakeholders who must manage the inherent complexities of real-world agricultural systems. It is the time to return to the original intent of IPM – true integration – by prioritizing integrated studies that better reflect the complexity of field conditions and even involve farmers.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85216256802&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85216256802&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1127/entomologia/2024/3082
DO - 10.1127/entomologia/2024/3082
M3 - Article
SN - 0171-8177
VL - 44
SP - 1355
EP - 1357
JO - Entomologia Generalis
JF - Entomologia Generalis
IS - 6
ER -