Abstract

Bio-intensive IPM is defined as a systems approach to pest management based on an understanding of pest ecology. It begins with steps to accurately diagnose the nature and source of pest problems, and then relies on a range of preventive tactics and biological controls to keep pest populations within acceptable limits. An important difference between conventional and bio-intensive IPM is that the emphasis of the latter is on proactive measures to redesign the agricultural ecosystem to the disadvantage of insect pest and to the advantage of its parasite and predator complex but at the same time, bio-intensive IPM shares many of the same components as conventional IPM. BIPM options can be classified into proactive or reactive. In simple terms the proactive measure includes biodiversity, cultural control, host plant resistance and transgenic crops and reactive measures include mechanical control, biological control and use of reduced risk pesticides. The most recent bio-intensive integrated approaches for pest management utilizes components such as cultural methods viz., crop rotation, summer ploughing, fallowing, intercropping, pruning, mulching, spacing, planting date, trap cropping, etc and use of resistant cultivars; bio-agents viz., predators, parasitoids and bio-control agents, mycorrhizal fungi, botanicals including bio-fumigation, oil cakes, FYM, crop residues, green manuring and other organic amendments, physical methods viz., hot water treatment of planting material, soil solarization and bio-rational chemicals like pheromones.