Implementing Holistic Pest Management

This chapter presents an illustrative and simple guide to implement Holistic Pest Management (MHP). It begins by describing preventive tactics such as the management strategy of pest organisms under the holistic approach. Next, the steps of the critical path of HPM to assess socio-environmental systems are presented. This critical route begins by assessing – with farmer participation – the initial state of the system. It then proceeds through the definition of indicators to calculate the Holistic Risk Index (HRI) – the cornerstone in decision-making of HPM– and concludes evaluating the effectiveness of adaptation and mitigation actions included in the work plan, in order to meet the goals set for system management. Subsequently, the steps for HPM implementation are described. To achieve this goal, emphasis is given to the importance of integrating working groups composed of farmers, academics and facilitators and to the training of the working group through Farmer Field Schools and Agricultural Experimentation. As an example, a case study is presented to estimate and analyze, graphically and statistically, the HRI towards coffee leaf rust.