Integrated Disease Management (IDM): Meaning and Components | Plant Diseases

In this article we will discuss about the meaning and components of Integrated Diseases Management (IDM).

Meaning of Integrated Disease Management (IDM):

The Integrated Disease Management (IDM) involves the need based use of pesticide only when the disease incidence reach economic threshold levels and this will promote the build up of many bio-control agent in the crop ecosystems.

Thus IDM, a greener alternative to the conventional use of chemicals, is an attempt to promote natural, economic and sociological farming methods through the most effective combination of farming techniques and judicious and limited use of fungicide.

In other words, IDM programme implies all the available disease management approaches including cultural, biological and chemical control with the main objective to keep the disease incidence below economic threshold level.

Components of Integrated Disease Management IDM:

Broadly IDM involves four components namely:

i. Host resistance.

ii. Biological control.

iii. Cultural control, and

iv. Chemical control.

i. Host Resistance:

Resistance is the character of a plant which suppress pathogen and disease development. The use of resistant genotypes is a highly effective approach to suppress disease to tolerable levels. Resistance alone is sometimes sufficient to suppress disease to tolerable levels. In resistant genotypes, disease appears late, build up slowly and results in little damage to the crop.

ii. Biological Control:

In this method the pathogen actively is reduced through the use of other living organisms e.g., hyper-parasites, resulting in a reduction of disease incidence and severity.

iii. Cultural Control:

This involves deliberate manipulation of the crop environment to make it less favourable to harmful organism e.g., by disrupting their reproduction cycles, eliminating their food sources, or encouraging their natural enemies.

Included in this method are such practices as intercropping, crop rotation, field sanitation, manipulation of sowing dates etc. some of these techniques provide only small benefits when integrated with other techniques, they significantly improve disease management.

iv. Chemical Control:

In IDM programme chemical control implies the judicious and need based use of pesticides (fungicides, insecticides and herbicides). Chemical control is essential in areas where diseases appear in the early stage of plant growth and environmental conditions are likely to spread them fast.