Advances in physical control methods in IPM

Description

The evidence is mounting for pesticide failures on many fronts, including environmental contamination and pest resistance to chemical products. As an alternative, physical management methods are environmentally friendly, are not subject to the development of resistance, leave no residues and require no complicated registration procedures. In this chapter, recent advances in physical control methods are reviewed, and how they are applied to the pre-harvest situations, and to the post-harvest situations of stored products, notably fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers. Physical management techniques should be fully integrated into integrated pest management programmes. The chapter discusses how physical barriers are applied in the pre-harvest field as compared to the post-harvest situations and how sanitation measures differ between pre- and post-harvest. The chapter concludes with a section on the vision for the future of post-harvest phytosanitary measures, which includes the possibility of artificial intelligence, coupled with affordable sensors.

Table of contents

1 Introduction 2 Pre-harvest situations 3 Post-harvest situations 4 Conclusions 5 References