Introduction to crop scouting

Abstract

"Crop scouting is an essential part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Integrated pest management uses field-specific information and improved decision- making to protect crop yield and quality while minimizing the risks associated with pesticide use. Through a regular and systematic field-sampling program, scouting provides field-specific information on pest pressure and crop injury. This information is essential to the appropriate selection and application of pest management procedures. Although scouting is most often thought of as being a method by which recommendations for in season rescue treatments are made, scouting can also be used to determine whether replanting is appropriate and to make pest management recommendations for the next or succeeding growing seasons (Figure 1)." -- page 3