ADAS has updated its IPM Pest Planning Tool, so growers and their advisors can better understand the success of their IPM strategies and refine them for the future.
Funded by Defra, the IPM Planning Tool has been used by over 2000 registered farmers, agronomists and advisors since 2023 to create over 5400 bespoke IPM cropping plans for free online.
The functionality improvements include:
- The option to add information on the success of previous IPM control measures, to improve the ability to review the farm progress of IPM uptake
- Improved layout of the summary and reporting function, which now includes all the information entered into the IPM plans by the user to create better IPM summaries
- The ability to add land areas for each crop type entered into the IPM plans.
Mark Ramsden, IPM Principal Consultant at ADAS, commented: “Effective crop protection depends on making informed, evidence‑based decisions, and the IPM Planning Tool helps growers do that. By guiding users towards integrated monitoring, thresholds and targeted interventions, users of the tool are supported to use pesticides only where and when they truly add value. By embedding IPM planning into routine decision‑making, we not only improve the reliability of pest management today but also protect active ingredients, slow resistance development, and support the long‑term sustainability of cropping systems and wider environmental health in the UK”.
The IPM Planning Tool is freely available at https://ipmtool.net/ or via the VI website https://voluntaryinitiative.org.uk/schemes/integrated-pest-management/.
BASIS crop protection and environmental advisor points are available for completing the tool.
