The mission of the International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences (IAPPS) is to promote and support an integrated, scientific approach to plant protection. It involves a wide range of research approaches, technologies and practices, with the aim of encouraging the development and implementation of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) philosophy and practice.

Many definitions have been developed by various organisations and researchers over the years: perhaps most notable is the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) definition. Following contributions from various IAPPS Board members, IAPPS now has its own IPM definition.

“Integrated Pest Management is an approach to plant protection that focuses on utilising features of the agro-ecosystem and the management capability of farmers to combine different management strategies and practices to grow healthy and profitable crops, to minimize the use of agrochemical inputs, and to mitigate their negative impacts on human and environmental health”.

Over time, as farming and cropping practices are modified with the adoption of new technologies and, in responding to research findings, changing market requirements, and climatic events, the components of this IPM approach have been modified and will continue to be modified in the future. As in the past, this adaptation will be supported by many research and advisory organisations, involving such disciplines as taxonomy, plant pathology, virology, entomology, weed science, nematology, biodiversity, and modern biotechnology, as well as socio-economic analysis, rural anthropology and communication technologies ..More