When did Integrated Pest management (IPM) begin?
PETER: IPM generally began in the late 1950s. Pesticide-based pest management didn’t work, because insects got resistant to pesticides and because they killed natural enemies and released pests. Rice IPM was given lip service starting in the early 1970s, but it was probably the mid to late ‘70s that people made a serious attempt to use varietal resistance to replace insecticide use. It wasn’t until the late 1970s in most of rice-growing Asia that the idea of conserving the natural enemies and thinking of the rice field as a managed ecosystem began to be commonly discussed. Interviewer: What has been the relationship between pesticide use and rice production? PETER: Pesticide levels went down after policy interventions from central governments. Rice production continued to go up. Food grain production as a whole continued to go up. Clearly, food grain production wasn’t connected to pesticide use levels. The pesticides had overshot. There had been an over use of pesticides. In India it w
