Why Move to Biointensive IPM?
Biointensive IPM incorporates ecological and economic factors into agricultural system design and decision making, and addresses public concerns about environmental quality and food safety. The benefits of implementing biointensive IPM can include reduced chemical input costs, reduced on-farm and off-farm environmental impacts, and more effective and sustainable pest management. An ecology-based IPM has the potential of decreasing inputs of fuel, machinery, and synthetic chemicals—all of which are energy intensive and increasingly costly in terms of financial and environmental impact. Such reductions will benefit the grower and society. Over-reliance on the use of synthetic pesticides in crop protection programs around the world has resulted in disturbances to the environment, pest resurgence, pest resistance to pesticides, and lethal and sub-lethal effects on non-target organisms, including humans. (3) These side effects have raised public concern about the routine use and safety of p
