The objective of Integrated Control (IC) is to provide economic and co
mpetitive cropping with as few undesirable effects of crop-protection
measures on the environment, the user or the consumer as possible. A g
eneral scheme of relevant variables, characteristics and their interre
lationships is defined and those relations and aspects critical for re
alising the objective are identified. Particular attention is given to
the function of pesticides and their adverse effects on beneficial or
ganisms. Chemical control is least preferred of all effective measures
because of possible undesirable effects. Nevertheless, chemical and b
iological measures are very much complementary and there is no reason
to expect a major change in this situation. Apart from the general req
uirements for environmental, user and consumer safety, pesticides for
use in IC schemes should be effective against target organisms but (la
rgely) harmless to the beneficial organisms used in the biological mea
sures, i.e. intrinsically selective or suitable for selective applicat
ion. Because different profiles of pesticides are required to cover th
e needs of IC, the availability of a number of different pesticides an
d, especially, reliable information on their activity spectra is impor
tant. The need for, and development of, a database covering all possib
le effective measures for crop protection which might fill this need i
n The Netherlands, as an aid to scientists developing schemes for inte
grated control and for extensionists advising growers, is presented as
a solution to the main constraint identified for IC in protected and
other crops.