From the Director General

This issue of Caravan focuses on Integrated Pest Management or IPM. IPM is based on commonsense principles of agriculture backed by sound scientific understanding and confirmation of techniques and practices. The dictionary defines 'integrated' as "composed of separate parts united together to form a more complete, harmonious or coordinated entity."
        This is where ICARDA is successfully working with its national partners to find new IPM components, verify and refine traditional practices, evaluate the economics of using these in strategic combinations to address specific problems, and then pass them on as a package of options to the farmers.
        Farmers know that some landraces will withstand a pest or disease attack better than others, and they have selected for these traits over many generations. They know that using pesticides will eliminate or control a problem. They also know that there have been trade-offs in the past with resistant landraces that may produce less nutritious grains, or with insecticides that kill even useful pest predators. While it is true that most farmers will happily embrace individual components of pest control, few have the confidence or immediate knowledge to blend several of these components into a harmonious IPM strategy.
        Thanks to the tools and expertise available at ICARDA, these components of IPM are being successfully packaged. Traditional plant breeding methods continue to play an important role in developing new improved cultivars that combine several desirable traits, but the use of biotechnology allows the process from first cross to farmer-acceptable variety to be speeded up. It also permits the incorporation of specific desirable genes into cultivars for resistance to both biotic and abiotic stresses.

        Pesticides remain among these components as the last resort. Through knowledge generated by science, we can help the farmer choose the most appropriate pesticide for addressing his immediate problem and the most benign towards the environment. Research is confirming the existence and effectiveness

of, for example, naturally-occurring entomopathogenic fungi which will target only the economically-damaging Sunn Pest. Other fungi are being discovered in the natural world, which could be used as biological pesticides of tomorrow.
        In developing IPM packages, indigenous knowledge is not overlooked by ICARDA's research teams. Trials are now confirming the value of natural extracts and oils taken from trees such as the neem (Azadirachta indica) and Melia azedarach in controlling insect pests such as chickpea leaf miner. Armed with verifiable information on the best spraying methodology and effectiveness against specific pests, it will soon be possible to supplant older generation, broad-spectrum pesticides within IPM strategies.
        As always, it will be the pioneer farmers who will first adopt such technologies. The benefits of IPM are already sufficiently evident, and we are confident that the rate of adoption by farmers of the IPM packages available will continue to increase. This is yet another step forward on the road to eradicating hunger and poverty.