Integrated Pest Management: A Sophisticated Approach towards Reduction of Chemical Use on Cotton Crops

Integrated Pest Management 1
INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT: A SOPHISTICATED APPROACH
TOWARDS THE REDUCTION OF CHEMICAL USE ON COTTON CROPS
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Integrated Pest Management 2
The cotton crop is one of the major cash crops produced in Australia. They face
problems with the pesticides which bring a lot of losses to the plants which will lead to
fewer yields. There are different types of pests that cause havoc in the cotton plant that is
the major pests which include: Helicoverpa spp, spider mites, mirids, aphids, whiteflies
while the minor pests include: thrips, sucking bugs, beetles, minor caterpillars and other
pests. These pests were generally controlled with synthetic insecticides which most of
them resisted the pesticides.
The benefits of these pesticides of these pesticides were to improve productivity
of the crop from the pests ,protect of crop losses or yield reduction, to control diseases
from the crops, and improve the quality of cotton crop to be produced however these
pesticides were found to be harmful since it caused a lot of effects to the people such as
the health implications to human since they interfere with the biological systems which
lead to harm to the animal kingdom mostly in the nervous and reproductive systems .
The impact through food commodities this is what amount was the chemical used
in that kind of plant and what were its effects to the human being when they consume
such crops or use the products of the cotton plant. The pesticides can also bring an impact
to the environment t soil, water, and other vegetation, that can contaminate them and
killing other organisms that were not the main target such as birds.
In the soil contamination, it is able to bring about the reduction of soil fertility due
to high usage of the chemicals that will kill the soil organisms and nitrites which adds to
soil fertility. Water is contaminated in different ways that are when we spray the crops,
and it rains the chemical is carried through, or the soil is carried and disposed of in the
rivers which have many effects to human life.

Integrated Pest Management 3
The research was undertaken, and they decided to use the integrated pest
management in the cotton crops due to the many effects of the pesticides which brought
more havoc than benefits. This method is a combination of different methods such as the
improved resistant varieties, the biological and cultural practices. This concept was
developed so as to manage insecticide resistance and environmental contamination. The
outcome for the use of this process is the long stable management of pests and beneficial,
how to reduce the risk assistance so as to minimize the economic losses of the crop yield
and reduce the threats to human effect and also protect the plants in the area (Trapero et
al. 2016).
The elements of the best practices of the IPM
1. Know your enemy and friends
This is you know the knowledge of the pests and their benefits and damages to
your crops and the effects they may occur to your farm Integrated. This may help you to
identify the sources of potential infestation and non-insecticidal management strategies to
control the pest (Naranjo, Ellsworth and Frisvold 2015).
2. Take a year-round approach
This is you divide the year into phases so as to reduce the overall risks in the
phases. This is you take into the following accounts the crop story, the crop sequence,
management of the weeds, plan ahead of how to manage the pests in case of the trouble.
Have plan for the sampling crops.an example avoid the winter period since it will hosts a
number of pests
3. Think of the farm surrounding