INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN CEREAL CROPS: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

The food security of the world depends upon the cereal crops like rice, wheat and maize and these crops are being impacted by the insect pests, the alteration of climate and unfriendly farming processes. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has emerged as one of the holistic and sustainable methods that can reduce the losses on yields due to pests, at least environmental degradation. It is a system review, and it summarizes the available body of evidence of IPM strategies being applied in large-scale cereal cropping systems and determining their effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and environmental sustainability. To identify and critically examine the peer reviewed articles regarding the analysis of the cultural practices, biological control, host plant resistance, selective chemical application and new digital technologies in the use of cereals IPM programs, a systematic review of the literature was conducted. The findings have indicated that IPM has been linked to stable growth in yield, an average of 10-19 percent growth in rice, 16-30 percent in wheat, and 13.530 percent in maize and 25-60 percent reduction in the use of synthetic pesticides. In addition, IPM also enhances the natural enemies, biodiversity, and agro ecosystem resilience in climatic stress agro ecosystems. The economic researches have revealed that despite moderate costs involved during initial monitoring costs, the IPM systems are more profitable in the long run and less susceptible to the production risks compared to the conventional systems that rely on the application of pesticides. However, not all of these issues, such as the absence of homogeneity in definition of operations, low awareness rates among farmers, and resource deficiency yet, make high level of adoption impossible. Precision agriculture systems coupled with ecological plans of behavior on a landscape scale coupled with innovations in biological control is one method to strengthen IPM systems. Overall, the review has substantiated IPM as a key sector to sustainable cereal production to strike a balance between productivity, environmental integrity and economic stability in the face of increasing challenges of food security in the world.