Rj. Hillocks, Integrated crop management for smallholder farmers in Africa with special reference to coffee in Malawi, PEST MAN SC, 56(11), 2000, pp. 963-968
Integrated crop management (ICM) goes beyond integrated pest management (IP
M) in taking a more holistic approach that incorporates crop protection act
ivities as an aspect of crop husbandry and as part of the overall farm mana
gement plan. This encourages farmers to consider the pest management benefi
ts of sound crop husbandry and soil nutrient management, so that the use of
commercial pesticides is a last resort, but when their use is necessary it
is fully integrated with cultural practices. Viewed in this way, ICM has m
uch to offer agriculture in Africa, which is still largely based on smallho
ldings. However, the ICM concept as it is applied in developed countries wi
ll require careful adaptation to the needs of smallholder agriculture in th
e developing world. The most significant difference between the two levels
of agrarian development is that in Western Europe and to some extent North
America, food production is in surplus, whereas in Africa the need is still
to maximise food production per hectare. Environmental concerns cannot the
refore be a central component of an ICM system that will be acceptable to a
n African smallholder. The first requirement if ICM is to be adopted in Afr
ica is that it should deliver yield increases and also that the crop produc
tion increases are sustainable. Practices that pollute the environment or d
eplete the resource base are not ICM-compatible. Smallholder coffee in Mala
wi is taken as a case study to illustrate the contribution that an ICM appr
oach could make to sustainable increases in crop production. (C) 2000 Socie
ty of Chemical Industry.