Really integrated pest management

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is widely practised around the world. The IPM principles are central to many producers’ regimes and high on the list of priorities in many of their customers’ specifications. To utilise IPM to its full extent, however, requires complete buy-in from the field right through to management. In Kenya, The Real IPM Company was established in January to encourage and provide growers with the necessary management skills and resources to produce crops without over-reliance on pesticides. Tommy Leighton talks to owner and director of the Thika-based company Louise Labuschagne about her IPM vision and a highly successful project to control leafminer biologically at Indu Farms in Limuru.