Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strives to balance economics, efficacy and environmental risk, where available, should be incorporated into planning alternatives. (IPM is a sustainable approach to pest control that combines the use of prevention, avoidance, monitoring and suppression strategies, to maintain pest populations below economically damaging levels, to minimize pest resistance, and to minimize harmful effects of pest control on human health and environmental resources. IPM suppression systems include biological controls, cultural controls and the judicious use of chemical controls.)

An appropriate set of mitigation techniques must be planned and implemented to reduce the environmental risks of pest management activities in accordance with quality criteria in the local Field Office Technical Guide. Mitigation techniques include practices like a Filter Strip or Conservation Crop Rotation, and management techniques like application method or timing.

As an essential component of both commodity-specific IPM and IPM general principles, clients should be encouraged to use the minimum level of pest control necessary to meet their objectives for commodity quantity and quality.

In conjunction with other conservation practices, the number, sequence and timing of tillage operations should be managed to maintain soil quality and maintain soil loss at or below the soil loss tolerance (T) or any other planned soil loss objective. Additional Criteria to Protect Water Resources
Pest management environmental risks, including the impacts of pesticides in ground and surface water on humans and non-target plants and animals, must be evaluated for all identified water resource concerns. 

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Photo: State of Tennessee