Abstract:
The majority of cotton growers in the Australian cotton industry are familiar with an integrated approach to insect pest management. Researchers and agronomists often tout integrated pest management or IPM as the most sustainable approach for managing insect pests in cotton. The development of IPM systems reflects societies' expectations that pest management systems will neither degrade the environment nor will they cause health problems. Hence, the primary focus of an IPM strategy should be to reduce the reliance on synthetic pesticides (Wilson 2000). Integrated weed management (IWM) is an extension of the principles of IPM as applied to weed management. The focus of an IWM program is the development of sustainable weed management practices that ensure good control of weed problems while minimising the threats of herbicide resistance and species shift to the Australian cotton industry.
