Cultural Control in Integrated Pest Management

What is Cultural Control?

▪ The Modification of Management Practices so that the

environment is less favourable for Pest Invasion
Reproduction ,Survival ,and Immigration
Aims of Cultural Control

To achieve reductions in pest numbers through

crop management
Increase yield
Improve grain and crop quality.
Improve seed viability (germination rates)
Decrease cost of pest management
Reduce the negative impact of pest management on the
environment and health by reducing reliance to pesticide
 • Inexpensive
• Slow development of
resistance
Advantages • Low environmental impact
• Compatible with other pest
management

• May Suppress some pests, but

increase others
• May require community-wide
Disadvantages adoption
• Generally slower than pesticide for
controlling outbreaks
Types of Cultural Control
• Primary Cultural Control
• -those practices adopted specifically to control insect pests

• Secondary Cultural Control

• - Those practices adopted for general crop health, but which
also prevent pest build up
 Cultural Control

Site Selection Maintenance Harvesting

of Site Procedure
Site Selection

a. Crop isolation: the location of crops with respect to one another and their
degree of isolation can affect their likelihood of being invaded by pests.
Isolation from old crops of the same type, and from closely related
indigenous host-plants that act as sources of pests, is one way of reducing
the probability of attack.

b. Planting density and spacing: the primary objective of this cultural method
is to maximize yield per unit area without reducing crop quality, so that yield
advantages overide pest incidence reduction.

c. mixed cropping: in this approach, more than one crop is grown on the
same piece of land. This reduces phytophagous insect pests by encouraging
increases in natural enemies
Site Selection

d. timing of seeding and planting: this is used largely to:

avoid invasion by migrants, or the oviposition period of particular pests, and
the introduction of disease in the crop by insect vectors.

e. crop rotation: an effective rotation is one in which a crop of one plant

family is followed by one from a different family that is not a host crop of the
pest to be controlled

f. destruction of volunteer plants: such plants are very attractive to many

insects and serve as the focal point for future infestations. Unless they are
destroyed they can help perpetuate a pest problem by furnishing a food
source to long life-cycled pests of proceeding crops.
Site Selection

g. Management of alternate hosts: many insects reproduce on weeds or

other alternate hosts and then attack the main crops

h. Management of trap crops: trap crops (often small plantings, often made
earlier than the main plantings) are used to divert insect attack away from the
crop at risk by using more attractive food sources. The trap crop must usually
be destroyed before the insects reproduce.
Maintenance site

A .Cultivation, tillage: this approach can help in the control of soil inhabiting
forms of field crop pests
b. Fertilization: plant nutrition can influence the feeding, longevity and
fecundity of phytophagous pests; the common fertilizer elements (nitrogen,
phosphorous and potassium) can have direct and indirect effects on pest
supression.
c. Irrigation, drainage: moisture is an important limiting factor that affects the
survival of some pests. Where sufficient water is available, flooding is
sometimes used for insect and nematode control
d. Mulches: natural or synthetic soil coverings may encourage or discourage
pests. Plastic mulches may exclude soil pests, and organic mulches may permit
their control by providing a suitable habitat for their natural enemies
Harvesting Procedure

a. timing of harvesting: early harvesting can be used to

disrupt survival of the pest in its habitat
b. strip harvesting: in this system, crops are harvested in
alternate strips, so that two different aged growths
occur simultaniously in a field. When one series of
strips is cut, the alternate strips are about half grown
and the field becomes a rather stable environment.
References 1. Hill, B.S.,1989.Cultural Methods of Pest,
Primarily Insect Control.Macdonald
College of McGill University,Canada.

2. G.C. Jahn and I.Zahirul. Integrated Pest

Management:Control of Rice Insect Pest.