Integrated pest management is a system that combines biological, cultural, physical and chemical strategies to control pests. In plain English, that means using the easiest, least environmentally harmful, cheapest methods first and using more expensive, toxic methods only as a last resort.

Careful observation or crop monitoring is the first and most important step in IPM. You have to know exactly what pest you’re dealing with, when it appears, how many you have and on what plants. For example, after you can recognize aphids, you may find them on a few rose buds on a single plant in the front lawn or covering every bush in your prize-winning garden. It may be the beginning of your gardening system or near the end. How you choose to control the aphids – or whether you choose to control them at all – depends on all these factors and more.

Integrated pest management strategies are like a series of steps. The first steps are the least toxic and the least harmful control methods. The most potentially toxic controls are last resort steps.

Cultural control: Giving plants optimal growing conditions – soil fertility, water, light and freedom from competing weeds – is the key to this first step. Other good cultural practices include using pest- and disease-resistant varieties and crop rotation, which means moving particular crops to new parts of the garden each year.

Crop sanitation: Keeping pests and diseases out of the garden in the first place is more than half the battle won. Inspecting new plants, cleaning your tools, eliminating weeds and using best watering practices help prevent the spread of potential problems.

Mechanical control: Prevent pests from getting on your plants by covering them with special fabrics or using hot water, air fire and the heat of the sun to kill them without poisons. Simply knocking pests into a can of soapy water does the trick, too.

Biological control: Every pest has a natural control, whether it’s predator or disease. You can buy and release many of these control organisms or encourage the ones that already exist around your garden.

Chemical control: As a last resort, apply the least toxic pesticides. The best ones target only the pest and don’t affect the innocent bystanders, such as bees, spiders and other beneficial insects. These pesticides also don’t hang around in the environment where they can continue to affect other organisms long after their use.

Tags : Aquaculture, Food Manufacturers, Pest Management

Agriculture is a very important activity for the survival of human beings on this earth. This is clearly reflected in the very basic fact that agriculture is one of the oldest activities of humankind. As the most profound resource, agriculture provides food, clothing and shelter to human. Agriculture not only supports humans for their subsistence, but helps a large number of industries too. Agriculture forms the raw material for numerous farm products based industries. The basic products, resulting from agricultural activities, are processed in big factories, before the final product is marketed. As such, agriculture generates employment, both for people working in the farming sector as well as those in the industrial, agriculture-based sector.

These days, agriculture has become an important commercial activity. A variety of crops are grown, which can be classified as: Food crops,Commercial crops,Fiber crops, Beverage crops. Agriculture has benefited a great deal from the various advancements in the field of science and technology – with modern machines making the ‘field’ jobs much easier than ever before. All over the world, agriculture is managed efficiently with the help of modern farm equipment. In the US, farmers rely much more on technology than on manual labor.

Machines are used for all important farm operations like – tilling, sowing, harvesting, sorting of fruits, etc. Most farmers prefer employing those laborers who are skillful, and who can operate upon their tractors, combines and harvesters. In fact, farmers are also ever so ready to try out every new development in the variety of crops, pesticides, fertilizers and the like.The importance of agriculture also lies in the fact that it supports the export sector also – most of the farmers in the United States produce largely for exports, as the soil produce is quite fertile, and coupled with modern technology, the returns are huge. Some of the major farm products are crops like rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton, jute, tea, coffee and rubber- which are produced in most parts of the world.

In countries that export surplus farm output, agriculture is all the more significant, and the agricultural production is fairly high. As the farmer gets a good profit, his financial position, especially in developed countries, is better than many other entrepreneurs. He is now able to purchase the latest machinery, use latest techniques of farming, buy new and improved hybrid varieties of seeds, and use the best fertilizers to increase productivity. Nowadays, there are improvements in wholesale marketing as well as transportation of farm products. The use of refrigeration systems and efficient rail transport has made possible the safe delivery of perishable farm products like dairy products, vegetables, and fruits.

The agricultural sector plays an important role in the sphere of providing large scale employment to people. Large and moderately large farms employ workers to undertake the various jobs relating to cultivation of crops and care of farm animals. Agriculture is not just limited to crop cultivation, dairy farming has become an indispensable part of the agricultural process. Dairy farming is the practice of farming in which cattle are kept for milk and milk products. Oftentimes, poultry is also included. In fact, the scope of agriculture has widened, with interrelated sectors over-lapping one another; and in the present scenario, each of these sectors is as important as any other!  Today, the importance of agriculture lies in the fact that it is practiced both for subsistence as well as commercial reasons!

Tags : Agriculture, Importance, Scope