• Knowledge of control methods

For that, thee are several methods :

• Prophylactic control, which consists in applying preventive measures against harmful organisms,
• Chemical control, which uses pesticides to fight against them,
• Biological control which consists in fighting the harmful organism by the use of a beneficial organism (predator or natural parasite of the organism to be eliminated)

Controlling pests efficiently implies taking into account all the factors influencing the crop and adapting the control methods to its environment. There are methods which integrate those factors and provide a rational control.

• Rational control, which characterizes itself by the rational use of phytopharmaceutical products (choice of products, dosage, …)
• Integrated control, which encourages an agriculture based on ecological principles thanks to a combination of biological, chemical, physical, cultural measures ...
• Biological Integrated Protection (BIP or PBI, in French), which privileges biological control.

Those control methods must not be confused with the important concepts that concern much more the conception of agricultural practices rather than crop protection stricto sensu.:

• Biological agriculture
• Rational agriculture

This page is under construction, you will find here information on each theme listed above.

Voir le dossier de l'Institut National de Recherche Agronomique (INRA) sur l'agriculture durable.

Biological Integrated Protection helps to keep crops free from pests by giving priority to biological control. When those biological means are not able to control pests or when the cost becomes prohibitive, the chemical products which do not harm beneficial insects, respecting the auxiliarie...

Désormais, on sait que le respect du fonctionnement des écosystèmes, impliquant la préservation de la biodiversité, est la clé d’une intégration durable de l’agriculture dans une gestion à long terme des ressources naturelles. L’agroécologie, qui étudie les interactions entre plantes, animaux, homme et environnement à l’intérieur des agroécosystèmes, repose sur ce principe et trouve sa place dans une approche systémique de l’agriculture.

The agribusiness sector exercises an important pressure on natural resources. The use of pesticides to prevent and stop the development of crop diseases and pests must be closely watched and minimized to favour methods less harmful to the environment. It is the prime objective of rational agriculture.

La production intégrée est définie par l’Organisation internationale de lutte biologique et intégrée contre les ennemis des cultures et des forêts (OILB) comme étant un système de production d’aliments et des autres produits de haute qualité qui utilise des ressources et des mécanismes de régulation naturels pour remplacer des apports dommageables à l’environnement et qui assure à long terme une agriculture viable (OILB/SROP, 1993).