Protecting your crops against the onslaught of pests is crucially important, but the old ways of crop protection just aren’t cutting it anymore, especially if farming regeneratively is your main goal. Enter Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Not just a pest management system, but a way of thinking. IPM is all about effectively managing pests, but in a way that is soft on the environment and that is good for farmer profits, which perfectly suits the philosophy of regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture systems aim to enhance ecosystem health, improve soil fertility, and promote biodiversity. IPM aligns with all these goals through the integration of various pest management strategies while minimizing negative impacts on the environment. Let’s take a look at how IPM more specifically fits into a regenerative agriculture system.
A reduction of synthetic inputs
One of the main principles of regenerative agriculture is to minimize the use and dependency on external inputs. IPM aims to minimize the use of synthetic pesticides and herbicides. Instead, the use of natural predators, crop rotations, and cover cropping is encouraged in order to create a balanced system that can regulate pest populations without the need for chemical intervention. IPM strategies therefore aid in moving away from chemical reliance in crop protection.
Pesticides being applied to a maize field.
Enhancing Biodiversity
Biodiversity is at the center of regenerative agriculture. IPM supports this through the promotion of beneficial insects such as predators, parasitoids, and pollinators in the environment and ensuring that their populations grow and flourish in the agroecosystem. Through IPM, natural enemies are either introduced or conserved, which contributes to building a resilient and self-regulating agroecosystem. Enhancing the biodiversity in a system through IPM strategies helps build a resilient and robust crop field that can protect itself. For example, a reduction in fungicide application increases the presence of entomopathogenic fungi such as Beauveria bassiana in the field, which provides effective control to a number of important pests.
Fall army worm (Spodoptera frugiperda) larvae infected with Beauveria bassiana
The image above shows different larval instars of fall army worm that were infected with B. bassiana (A-F represents the first to sixth larval instars respectively). Looking at these cadavers, it is safe to say that one could benefit from allowing this fungus to populate your crop field. B. bassiana acts as a parasite on a wide range of insect species, causing white muscardine disease. When microscopic spores of the fungus comes into contact with the body of the insect, they germinate, penetrate the cuticle of the insect, and grow inside its body, killing it within a few days. When the insect has been killed, a white mold forms around its cadaver to produce and release new spores, infecting other insects. B. bassiana is just one of the many insect-killing fungi that have been found. Therefore, through minimizing the use of chemical pesticide we can allow these fungi to establish in our crop field and protect them from insect pests.
Soil health
Regenerative agriculture puts strong emphasis on the health and resilience of the soil. Soil health is an integral part of any regenerative agriculture system. This runs complementary to the practices of IPM. In IPM systems, crop rotation and multi-cropping systems are utilized to minimize pest damage by disrupting pest life cycles to reduce the likelihood of pest outbreaks. Conveniently, these practices fit perfectly into regenerative agriculture systems as crop rotation and multi-cropping has been proven to promote soil health and regeneration. Soil health is also promoted through the minimizing of chemical pesticides as they have been proven to have a negative impact on the precious microbial communities that form the foundation of healthy soil.
It is quite clear that IPM has its place within regenerative agriculture. The above-mentioned only scratches the surface on how IPM and Regenerative agriculture fit together. IPM works in tandem with regenerative agriculture to create systems that are self-regulating and resilient. Both philosophies emphasise the fact that working with the environment will benefit your crops and your wallet.