Insect Pest and Disease Management in Organic Farming

For any given combination of crop, location, labour and capital availability conditions there are potentially several optimum crop protection strategies. Different crop production or protection strategies include schedule-based prevention, integrated pest management, organic, traditional, biodynamic, biological or ecological practices. Alternative strategies may rely on fundamentally different conceptual approaches, yet also function as viable suites of best management practices for crop production. The idea of such ‘syndromes of production’ using shizen and conventional rice farming management schemes, and show that qualitatively different sets of integrated practices can produce favourable outcomes in terms of yields and profit. Emphasia on most conventional crop production systems in most locales, viable alternatives, including organic agricultural schemes, either already are in practice or are possible. To support and develop alternative crop protection schemes that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable, alternative lines of research, price supports, agricultural policies, and land-use practices may need to be embraced. To optimize crop protection in organic agriculture, research should be geared to defining and accessing suites of crop production materials and practices that work in concert as a favourable production syndrome