Cotton pest management. 3. Integrated pest management techniques and resources

Cropping techniques, varietal pest tolerance traits, entomophagous organisms, entomopathogenic agents and chemical mediators must all be considered for chemical pest control. Combinations of these regulation factors could be used for integrated pest control in cotton protection programmes. All chemical control alternatives cannot yet be fully implemented. Solutions are available for controlling some types of pests: hairiness against leafhoppers, entomophagous and entomopathogenic organisms to reduce homopteran pests, creation of improved varieties of cotton to control carpophagous caterpillars. However, substantial crop damage will still occur if chemical control is not used. CIRAD and its partners are developing new crop protection programmes, especially in Africa, that include these alternative control techniques. (Résumé d'auteur