CHEMICALS IN INTEGRATED CONTROL

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.