INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM) IN BELGIAN ORCHARDS IN 1995

ISHS Acta Horticulturae 422: International Conference on Integrated Fruit Production

INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM) IN BELGIAN ORCHARDS IN 1995

Author:

C. Schaetzen

Abstract:
The problems caused by the resistance of the pear sucker (Psylla Pyri) against insecticides forced the practice in 1985 to change to integrated pest management on pear. Eversince all growers have been using selective insecticides. In the Belgian pear culture, the use of Cycocel as a fructification stimulance is a standard cultural measure for most of the growers so that the integrated fruit production is out of the question according to the IOBC. Since 1987 the first fruitgrowers started to introduce the predatory mite (Typhlodromus Pyri) in the apple orchard. The application of IPM in apple orchards didn't go as smoothly as it did in pear orchards. This is due to different circumstances:

No problem of resistance, as with the pears.
The beneficials, in casu the predatory mite, have to be put out in the apple orchard, requiring more man-hours and higher expences.
The whole system of crop protection had to be adjusted to the predatory mites. A lot of growers were afraid for the loss of quality.
The first years only Captan and Dithianon were recommanded, resulting in a background colour that was more yellow. In Belgium there is a difference of about 5 to 10 BEF in price for the same quality but with a yellow background. The fruitmarket prefers a red Jonagold with a green background colour. This restricted the growth of the IPM area.
From the government, the fruit sector and the auctions, there was no positive motivation to switch over to IPM on apple.
The growers who wanted to switch over to integrated crop protection or fruit production had extra costs for the education and the counselling.
Last but not least fruit growers couldn't sell their fruit under a separate label and therefore had no extra profit or satisfaction.

Due to all these circumstances, the application of the integrated crop protection - production is not as develloped in the apple culture in Belgium and especially in the Flemish part of the country. Belgium is divided into two language zones being the French speaking part, Wallonia, and the Dutch speaking part, Flanders. Because of this, the education and the counselling of the growers is divided into two. Both have their own growers organisation.

Full Text (PDF format, 163936 bytes)
Citation

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files)