Development and implementation of environmentally benign approaches for integrated pest management of cruciferous crops in China

Cruciferous vegetables are one of the dominant food crops, and widely considered to be healthy foods containing multiple nutrients and phytochemicals. In China, cruciferous crops are mainly infested by lepidopteran, coleopteran and hemipteran pests, causing damage through the loss of crop yield or quality. Pest control has relied heavily on the application of chemical pesticides for a long time but many problems are associated with their use such as the appearance of resistant strains of pests and harmful effects on nontarget organisms. To achieve better control of pests in cruciferous crops, efforts since the 1990s have been focused on developing and implementing integrated pest management (IPM) incorporating various environmentally benign approaches, including cultural practices, conservation biological control and behavioral regulation. The IPM system was designed as a flexible framework to minimize adverse effects on vegetable products, nontarget species and environment, to maximize profit for growers, and to be sustainable. Over the past two decades, this IPM program has been extensively used to effectively control the major insect pests in cruciferous crops in the southern provinces of China, and proved to be ecologically sound, economically feasible, environmentally acceptable, and practically applicable.