Status of insect pest management in organic potato production

G. Boiteau

The insect pest management program in organic potato production gives priority to preventive control methods rather than curative methods. To do so, organic potato growers in Canada, the USA or the European Union rely on similar cultural methods to control insect pests: crop rotation, field isolation, delayed planting, soil management and mulching.

Unfortunately, because each method is effective against a particular insect pest, the integration of methods or against multiple pests remains rare and limited to single fields rather than the whole farm.

Furthermore, conservation and releases of biological control agents are rarely used in potato production because of limited knowledge on their efficacy, the lack of resources or the unavailability of the control agents on the market.

The increasing consumer demand for organically grown food is forcing growers to make difficult decisions. The increase in acreage required to meet future demand is drawing insect pest protection further away from its primary reliance on preventive pest control methods towards a dependence on curative control methods.

For example, farms in transition from conventional to organic benefit little from the crop tolerance to insect pests in established long-term organic potato farms and must turn to reactive control methods.


Source
382 Cahiers Agricultures vol. 17, n° 4, juillet-août 2008


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Posted September 2008