Introduction: Beyond IPM

Integrated Pest Management (IPM), currently considered the paradigm or “normal science” of pest management, presents anomalies that show its exhaustion. Such anomalies are its low adoption rates by farmers, serious losses caused by pests despite advances in the science of crop protection, and the continuous emergence of alternative pest management strategies. The origin of these anomalies is attributed to the reductionist approach of IPM. Therefore, a drastic innovative change in pest management is proposed, based on a holistic approach. More specifically, it is necessary to develop a socio-environmental system where all pest management actions are interconnected with the other components of the system and are oriented to the people’s well-being. In order to achieve this goal, Holistic Pest Management (HPM), a new paradigm of pest management, is proposed.