Integrated Pest Management: Principles And Applications, Vol. 1

The book describes ecofriendly pest management strategies for major crops of economic importance. The details of key potential pests and their integrated pest management (IPM) along with colour photographs will help the reader to identify pests the damage caused by them and their natural enemies. Conserving and encouraging natural enemies of the pests is a major feature of IPM and of this book. As IPM minimises the use of pesticides and maximises the use of various biological and cultural measures to manage the pests it will result in production of high quality produce at lower cost and satisfy consumer demand for clean and green produce. IPM is also environment-friendly and safer for farmers and farm workers. This book will prove a valuable reference for researchers students teachers extension workers pest scouts agribusiness personnel home gardeners and others interested in integrated pest management. It deals with principles concepts philosophy and methods of ecofriendly pest management based on IPM strategies. The contents include chapters on: Host resistance and its contribution in management of crop pests; Role of regulatory measures in containing and preventing spread of potential pests; Cultural practices and their role in pest management; Commercial potentials of predators and parasitoids in management of pests of high value crops; Potentials of entomofungal pathogens in management of key lepidopterous insects; Effectiveness and scope of Bacillus thuringiensis in management of lepidopterous insects; Scope and utilization of NPV as a key IPM component; Prospects and utilization of entomophilic nematodes in biocontrol of pests; Effectiveness and potentials of fungi and bacteria as biocontrol agents for disease management; Forecasting of diseases; Monitoring and weather-based forewarning of insect pests of economic crops; Integrated management of obnoxious weeds; Role of decision-making tools in pest management; Management of plant pathogenic nematodes and socioeconomic and institutional factors in promotion of IPM.