Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an approach that integrates various ecologically sustainable and economically viable pest control strategies. IPM being knowledge intensive approach to crop protection emphasizes appropriate decision-making based on knowledge of interaction of the crop, pests, beneficial organisms that prey on pests and whole lot of other information.
Pests in India lead to significant damage to crop production. Excessive and irrational use of chemicals for pest controls not only degrades the environment but also affects the human health due to presence of pesticide residue. An essential purpose in current agricultural crop manufacturing is to increase much less in depth and included farming structures with decreased inputs of fertilizers and insecticides and decreased use of herbal resources.
The main objectives of these systems are to maintain crop production both in quantitative and qualitative terms, maintain or preferably improve farm income and reduce negative environmental impacts to the maximum extent. IPM highlights the importance of making prompt decisions, which are largely dependent on the timely and accurate availability of information for effective implementation in the field by practitioners.
The decisions such as selection and timing of pest management intervention if necessary are always contingent on correct information about the pests and its biology, level of pest of incidence and available management options.
ICT-based DSSs can greatly help the farmers in accessing the relevant knowledge/information from the experts. The use of DSS helps farmers make timely and accurate pest management decisions whenever necessary. ICT offers an extensive variety of DSS tools, which may be used and actually lots of them are getting used notably in IPM all around the world. DSSs collect, organize and integrate all types of information required for producing crops, then analyze and interpret the information and finally use the analysis to recommend the most appropriate action or action choices.
Expert knowledge, mathematical models and timely data are key elements of DSSs and are used to assist producers both with daily operational and long-range strategic decisions. Computer-based DSSs have the potential to be important tools in the decision-making process for farmers and can potentially include all the requirements for practical implementation of IPM.
The innovative nature of new generation DSSs is based on:
i) a holistic vision of crop management problems with the focus on all the different individual operation issues
ii) Provision of information on the focus of the decision in the form of easy-to-understand decision supports able to reduce uncertainty
iii) easy and fast access
iv) two-way communication between users and the expert, which make it possible to consider context-specific information.
The DSSs combine the advantages of simple DSSs which is low cost, ease to deliver in multiple ways and needs limited time requirements for learning and using. The other DSS which are sophisticated ones which has greater integration of knowledge, greater grower choice of management tools and greater consideration of associated risks. As a result, these DSSs are intuitive tools that manage complex tasks with high efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, these systems use technology i.e. Internet, SMS, hand-held devices like mobile phones that are already available and known to most users.
The delivery of these DSSs using the Internet also ensures efficient transfer of scientific knowledge into practical application. The use of the Internet also increases Decision-making in crop protection, the accessibility for the user and allows the DSS to be updated easily and continuously, so that new knowledge can be rapidly and efficiently provided to farmers and allows users to maintain close contact with providers.
Development of DSS in various crops have been developed in ICAR but the DSS on mango according different Agro-Climatic zones for the management of insects/pests is being developed for the U.P. state by NCIPM as The Mango is king of all fruits and India is major producing and exporting country in world for the crop. There are several insect pests that damage mango trees, with the most prevalent and destructive being mango hoppers, mealy bug, stem borer, fruit fly, mango nut weevil and play a significant factor in reducing fruit quality and yield.
Various Integrated Pest Management Strategies should be adopted to control the population of insect/pests and to increase the production and productivity of the crop. Timely availability of right information to the farmers for decision-making can be a major step in management of the crop and helping the farmers at the critical stage of infestation.
Important Pests and Symptoms:
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Mango hopper: The wedges shaped Nymphs and adult insects puncture and suck sap of tender parts, reducing vigour of plants and particularly destroying the inflorescence and causing fruit drop. Hoppers are widely distributed in all mango growing areas of India.
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Mango mealy bug: The adult bugs are covered with whitish powder and colonize between bark of tree trunk, young shoots and panicles.
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Fruit fly: The female punctures outer wall of mature fruits with the help of its pointed ovipositor and insert eggs in small clusters inside mesocarp of mature fruits.
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Inflorescence midge: The larvae tunnel the axis of inflorescence and destroy it completely. Damage causes bending and drying of the inflorescences.
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Stem borer: The damage is caused by grubs either to roots or stems. The grubs after hatching from eggs first feed on bark and make irregular cavities.
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Bark eating caterpillar: The caterpillar spins brown zig-zag ribbon-like silken web on tree which consists of their excreta and wood particles.
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Shoot Borer: Larvae bore into young tender leaves during August and freshly hatched caterpillar bore into mid rib.
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Leaf miner: Most of the time, this pest is identified by the leaf miner damage. Frequently, it appears as yellow squiggly lines in the leaves.
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Shoot gall psylla: Nymphs emerge during August September and suck cell sap from adjacent buds.
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Stone weevil: Adult weevils (5-8 mm) are stout and dark brown, grubs are white legless and stumpy eggs are laid singly on the pericarp of tender marble sized fruits.
Important Diseases:
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Powdery mildew: The characteristics symptoms of disease are white superficial powdery growth of the fungus noticed on the inflorescence, stalk of inflorescence, leaves and young fruits.
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Anthranose: The disease manifests on the different parts as the earliest symptoms of the disease are the production of blackish brown specks on peduncles and flowers, small black spots on appear on the panicles and open flowers, which causes death of flowers, irreregular brown to deep brown spots of various sizes scattered all over the leaf surface.
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Mango Malformation: The most characteristic symptoms of malformation are the reduction and compact of internodes giving malformation a broom like appearance.
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Alternaria leaf spot: Appearance of small, brownish circular spots on the surface of leaves identifies Alternaria.
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Bacterial canker: The symptoms of the disease are noticeable only on old leaves. Initially, the lesions are angular, minute, irregular, yellow to light brown, scattered over leaf lamina.
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Stem end rot: The fruit while ripening suddenly becomes brown to black typically at stem end.
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Root Rot: Infection occurs at below the ground level, the circular to irregular water socked patches. These patches enlarge and girdle the entire base of the stem.
Conclusion
The trend in agriculture is toward more complex, technologically based crop management, with greater regulation and supervision both by government and processors regarding the use of fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals. Application of ICT in IPM has already taken place all over the world and will continue to make tremendous influence on future IPM strategies. Timely availability of right information to the farmers for decision-making can either result in application of pesticides saving crop worth crores of rupees or in non-application of pesticides saving the cost of involved pesticides and the environment from being polluted besides saving the beneficial organisms.
Thus, in the future, it will be difficult to overlook ICT components such as DSS in IPM programs. Given this dramatic change, DSS applications for IPM hold significant potential for advancing agricultural, the 1990s, mainly because farmers were unwilling to invest the time required to learn how to use new technologies. However, this is changing rapidly as internet access expands, technology advances, and farmers' understanding of technology grows.
The efficient use of ICTs, driven by improved access to Internet, is widely recognized as a key factor for increasing productivity and stimulating innovation throughout country. Thus, ICTs should promote entrepreneurship and economic progress in rural areas, thereby increasing the competitiveness of agriculture and forestry, diversifying the rural economy and improvement of the quality of life in rural communities as well.