AGRICULTURE, PESTICIDE AND INTEGRATED PEST CONTROL STRATEGIES

Agricultural professionals like farmers, fisherman and ranchers have been using IPM techniques for centuries. Crop rotation is one example because it disrupts the life cycle of many pests. In many agricultural settings, the principles of IPM apply:

1. Use knowledge about the pest's habits, life cycle, needs and dislikes
2. Use the least toxic methods first, up to and including pesticides
3. Monitor the pests' activity and adjust methods over time
4. Tolerate harmless pests, and set a economic threshold to decide when it's time to act

In agriculture, IPM strategies can be large-scale, even nation-wide. Quarantines and
import inspections help to exclude pests from counties, states or whole regions. Open communication helps everyone monitor the activity of important pests. Weather information can be used to predict pest activity, as well.

There is a general recognition of the need to improve environmental performance for agriculture, through enhancing the benefits - and reducing the harmful -  environmental effects to ensure the sustainability of resources use. The land resource and farmers who use it represent the foundation of our nation. Agriculture can be continue to be viable within the conservation needs of the farm, surrounding area and watershed. Continuous protection of the state's environmental quality can be assured by using Best Management Practices (BMPs). These agricultural BMPs are management and structural practices that permit economical and viable production while achieving the least possible adverse impact on the environment, including water quality. They also minimize possible adverse impact on human, animal and plant health.

Spraying pesticide can be dangerous to humans, as just about any can of bug killer sold at hardware or home improvement store will attest.
Most pesticide brands recommend careful spraying or application methods and contain warnings about use. Large scale spraying that may take place on farms may be dangerous too, as evidenced by numbers of health problems such as the development of cancer in higher rates among farm workers, and among those who live near farms.
What can’t always be determined is the amount of danger spraying a pesticide causes. This is in part why many large farms still utilize these substances to protect crops, and why many home gardeners use them too. However, there is clear evidence that certain pesticides don’t necessarily dissipate. They may remain on the foods long after they’ve been sprayed, and they can pose potential health hazards to the entire community of people and animals.
Many people were alerted to the potential dangers of pesticides when studies on the product DDT (dichlor-diphenyl-trichlorethylene), which was widely used as a pesticide until the 1970s, revealed that this product affected people and animals.

Naturally, most farmers are motivated to spray pesticide because it helps to increase quality and quantity of crops, and some pesticides protect human populations by eliminating certain bugs that may pose health hazards. On the other hand, evidence suggests that there is simply not enough known about the many pesticides used and their far-reaching environmental effects.
Even safer pesticides used in approved organic applications could have some effect on human, plant or animal populations, and there is much dispute in what really constitutes organic methods of farming.

Environmentalists advocate for greatly reducing and/or completely eliminating chemical spraying.
Others seek a middle ground, where most pesticide use would be reduced or very strictly controlled. Yet other groups believe that most pesticides used today are safe for humans. However, evidence in this area tends not to always support this belief.

From my Agroecologist point of view, the use of pesticide in agriculture can never be underestimated, especially on larger scale farming and meeting food demand, this do not unanimously oppose technology or inputs in agriculture but instead assess how, when, and if technology can be used in conjunction with natural, social and human assets. There is a need to acquire adequate information and knowledge about the used of chemical and also seek professional assistant. What makes farming practices productable and sustainable is balancing nature with technology.

References:

• National Pest Information Center (NPIC) 
• WiseGeek: Is Spraying Pesticide Dangerous to Humans? 
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If you have questions or enquiries, please
call at +234 803602670, or
email at agroecosolutions@gmail.com

Additional Resources:

• Commodity and Pest Information - U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• Crop IPM - Canada Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs
• National Plant Diagnostic Network - Supported by USDA and many others
• National Agricultural Pest Information System - Purdue University
• Biorationals: Ecological Pest Management Database - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
• National Organic Program - U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• How to Manage Pests of Agriculture, Floriculture, and Turf - University of California Statewide IPM Program
• Agricultural IPM - University of Florida
• Pesticides: Water-Related Risks of Active Ingredients - University of California Statewide IPM Program
• IPM Pest and Plant Disease Models and Forecasting - Integrated Plant Protection Center Alabama Vegetable IPM Project - Alabama Cooperative Extension System