Use our knowledge ICM further explored
Integrated Crop Management rests on five pillars. Below a bit more explanation for each pillar, including references to the scientific basis of our approach.
By rotating crops and selecting resistant varieties, farmers can significantly reduce nematode and soil-borne disease populations, improve weed control, and promote biodiversity. Soil management, water use, and targeted control strategies further enhance crop resilience. Advances in technology, such as precision agriculture and Decision Support Systems (DSS), provide valuable tools to help farmers make informed decisions. Integrated Crop Management (ICM) emphasizes continuous monitoring and adaptation, ensuring sustainable crop health and productivity over time.
Crop diversity
Growing different types of crops in a specific order (crop rotation) and spatial arrangement prevents nematodes, insects, diseases, and weeds from feeding and building up populations. Crop rotation is seen as the most important practice for nematode (Sikora, 2023) and soil-borne diseases. Management and decision support tools (DSS) have been developed enabling farmers to select the most effective cropping sequence to manage nematode and soil-borne disease populations. Similarly, weed populations will be better managed through crop diversification (Storkey and Neve, 2018, Liebman et al., 2001) and, allowing for different control tactics to be applied during the growing seasons,
increased competition for nutrients, water and light and in the case of cover crops: potential allelopathic effects. Ideally, the selection of cover crops and cover crop mixtures should be tailored to the specific plant-parasitic nematode, disease and weed communities present (Osipitan et al 2019). The importance of cover crops for population management is also reflected in relatively new developments such as breeding for cover crop cultivars targeting specific nematodes. In addition, crop diversification will have beneficial effects on the survival of predator species and biodiversity in general (Beillouin et al., 2021).
Cultivar choice is an important factor for the control of weeds, pests, and diseases. By choosing varieties that are resistant (no or less reproduction) or tolerant (not or less susceptible to damage) the impact of assailants can be prevented. Choosing the right cultivar can reduce the weed population through competition for resources such as light, water, and nutrients or through allelopathy (Andrews et al., 2015, Bertholdsson, 2005). Unfortunately, combined resistances against multiple diseases or pests are not yet widely available and often only available for a limited number of crops. Apart from cultivar choice, adjustment of sowing and harvest dates, sowing patterns, and densities are valuable measures to minimize the impact of weeds (Moss, 2017, Rasmussen, 2014, Weide van der et al., 2008 ), pests and diseases.
Cultivar choice & cropping strategy
Soil, water and nutrients
Soil, water, and nutrients: for any arable cropping system adequate soil management is an important factor to enhance crop production, furthermore offering options to better control diseases, pests and weeds and limit damage to the crop. The type and amount of fertilization (Fracchiolla et al., 2018), water management, and tillage practices are important measures as well. A well-growing crop can be more tolerant to diseases or pests. Primary tillage, e.g. ploughing is effective for weed control because weed seeds are buried deeply and will be unable to germinate (Gruber and Claupein, 2009) and the energy reserves of perennial species will be depleted (Brandsaeter et al., 2011), while crop residues are buried potentially enhancing the degradation of fungal spores. Also, tillage can reduce weed densities when applied to kill emerging weed seedlings (Riemens et al., 2007).
Direct control tactics are still needed when indirect tactics are insufficient to prevent crop yield losses and/or to prevent the build-up of populations of pests, diseases, and weeds in succeeding years. Direct control tactics can be applied through the use of conventional pesticides. However, the development and application of biocontrol low-risk resources, such as micro- and macro-organisms, physical and mechanical tactics (Lamichhane et al., 2016), and the use of functional agrobiodiversity offer interesting possibilities.
These activities must be supported by developments in the field of precision agriculture (Fennimore et al., 2016 ) and Decision Support Systems (DSS). The development of sensors and robotics allows for site-specific control: individual plant recognition for weed control with robotics. In a DSS a lot of knowledge has been condensed to make tailor-made decisions possible based on input data from the farmer’s field (Martin et al., 2016).
Targeted control
Monitoring and evaluation
Unlike a chemical based approach, Integrated Crop Management (ICM) employs a combination of strategies, each of which can yield variable and context-dependent results. Throughout the season and over multiple years, continuous evaluation and monitoring of populations of pests, diseases and weeds are crucial for farmers to determine the best management strategies and adjust their methods based on effectiveness. There is a wide array of methods and support tools available, and advancements in technology are rapidly enhancing ICM. Farmers can utilize the field's history to develop an initial management strategy for nematodes, weeds and soil-born pathogens and insects. Many farmers are familiar with their fields, including the extent of infestations and the most problematic species. However, not all farmers apply this knowledge in a proactive and organized way. The information is in many cases qualitative in nature, whilst it is necessary to determine the presence, species and density level of biotic stressors to choose the appropriate measures. In addition, monitoring for virulent nematode populations that can break through current resistance genes is an invaluable part of efficient PPN management.