IPM: Integrated Management of Insects, Diseases and Weeds in common bean

Smart Solutions for Safer Farming

Integrated Management of Insects, Diseases, and Weeds (IPM) is an agricultural practice designed to address the challenges posed by pests, diseases, and weeds in common bean cultivation. It provides a holistic approach to crop protection while prioritizing environmental sustainability and food safety. IPM focuses on maintaining a well-balanced ecosystem of beneficial organisms and employs a diverse set of biological, mechanical, physical, and cultural methods to achieve effective and long-lasting protection against pests and diseases. This technology aims to reduce the reliance on chemical pesticides, promoting natural control mechanisms, and ensuring crop productivity and food security. IPM can be adapted to various soil types and climatic conditions, making it a versatile and environmentally responsible solution for common bean growers.

This technology is TAAT1 validated.

7•7

Scaling readiness: idea maturity 7/9; level of use 7/9

Adults 18 and over: Positive high

IPM promotes safer farming practices by emphasizing non-chemical pest control methods, reducing the potential health risks associated with pesticide exposure for adults involved in agriculture

The poor: Positive medium

IPM provide long-term cost savings by reducing dependence on expensive chemical pesticides.

Under 18: Positive medium

By reducing pesticide reliance, IPM protects the long-term health of children and minimizes risks associated with chemical exposure during development.

Women: Positive medium

This supports family well-being and potentially enhances women’s roles in sustainable agricultural practices.

Climate adaptability: Highly adaptable

By promoting practices like crop diversification and the use of pest-resistant varieties, IPM supports crops in adapting to climate variability.

Farmer climate change readiness: Significant improvement

By promoting resilient, sustainable practices like pest-resistant crops, natural pest control, improved soil health, and reduced chemical dependency.

Biodiversity: Positive impact on biodiversity

IPM practices help maintain and even enhance biodiversity by preserving beneficial organisms such as pollinators, natural predators, and soil microbes.

Carbon footprint: Much less carbon released

IPM reduces the reliance on chemical pesticides, leading to less contamination of soil, water, and air.

Environmental health: Greatly improves environmental health

By reducing the use of pesticides and herbicides, IPM prevents chemical residues from accumulating and harming local flora and fauna.

Soil quality: Improves soil health and fertility

This approach encourages practices that reduce erosion and maintain soil organic matter, leading to healthier soils with enhanced nutrient availability, water retention, and resilience against drought and flooding.

Problem

Crop losses: Pest, disease, and weed pressure can undermine interventions designed to improve common bean productivity and farmer livelihoods.
High pest management costs: Repeated chemical applications can increase production costs and reduce the economic benefits of agricultural programmes.
Health and environmental risks: Inappropriate pesticide use can expose farmers and communities to hazardous chemicals and affect ecosystem health.
Growing resistance risks: Overreliance on chemical pesticides can reduce the effectiveness of crop protection measures over time.
Limited understanding of ecological control: Farmers may lack training in pest monitoring, beneficial organisms, and integrated decision-making.
Uncertain programme outcomes: Ineffective crop protection can lead to variable yields, lower farmer income, and reduced sustainability of bean production interventions.

Solution

Support integrated crop protection programmes: Development partners can support the adaptation of IPM packages to local common bean production systems and their main pest, disease, and weed challenges.
Build farmer and extension capacity: Training can cover pest identification, field scouting, economic thresholds, beneficial organisms, safe pesticide use, and integrated decision-making.
Establish demonstration plots: Farmer field demonstrations and learning networks can show how integrated approaches are applied under local conditions.
Promote appropriate control combinations: Technical support can help farmers combine resistant varieties where available, seed treatment, biological control, field sanitation, mechanical weed management, and targeted pesticide applications.
Monitor costs and production outcomes: Programmes can track pesticide use, crop damage, yields, production costs, and farmer adoption to assess performance.
Strengthen environmental and social outcomes: Monitoring biodiversity, pesticide exposure practices, and participation by women and young farmers can help programmes assess the broader benefits and limitations of IPM.

Key points to design your program

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) combines biological, cultural, mechanical, and targeted chemical control methods to reduce crop losses from pests, diseases, and weeds while minimizing dependence on synthetic pesticides. By promoting ecological balance, protecting beneficial organisms, and encouraging evidence-based pest management decisions, the technology improves food safety, environmental health, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable crop production. It is well suited for common bean value chain development, food safety, sustainable intensification, and climate-smart agriculture programmes, contributing to SDGs 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health and Well-being), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), 13 (Climate Action), and 15 (Life on Land). The technology creates opportunities for women, youth, extension agents, and crop protection service providers through safer and more sustainable pest management practices. To successfully integrate this technology, consider the following key actions:

Identify common bean production areas where pests, diseases, weeds, excessive pesticide use, and declining ecosystem health constrain productivity and food safety.
Establish partnerships with CIAT, ProPAS, research institutions, extension services, agro-input suppliers, and plant protection agencies to support pest diagnosis, technical guidance, and integrated crop protection programmes.
Assess major pest, disease, and weed challenges, existing crop protection practices, beneficial organism populations, and local agroecological conditions to guide the selection of appropriate IPM strategies.
Strengthen technical capacity by training farmers, extension agents, and crop protection service providers on pest identification, field scouting, economic thresholds, safe pesticide use, biological control, mechanical interventions, cultural practices, and integrated decision-making.
Promote integrated crop protection packages by combining resistant varieties, seed treatment, biological control agents, field sanitation, mechanical weed management, conservation of beneficial organisms, and targeted pesticide applications only when necessary.
Support demonstration plots, farmer learning networks, advisory services, and local crop protection systems to encourage adoption of IPM practices adapted to local production conditions.
Monitor programme performance through indicators such as reductions in pesticide use, pest and disease incidence, crop damage, yield stability, production costs, biodiversity indicators, adoption rates, and the participation of women and youth.

6,000 USD

Operation cost per year

0.5 - 1 USD

Coating 1kg of seed

25 - 35 USD/Ha

Pre-emergence herbicides

IP

Open source / open access

Scaling Readiness describes how complete a technology's development is and its ability to be scaled. It produces a score that measures a technology's readiness along two axes: the level of maturity of the idea itself, and the level to which the technology has been used so far.

Each axis goes from 0 to 9 where 9 is the “ready-to-scale” status. For each technology profile in the e-catalogs we have documented the scaling readiness status from evidence given by the technology providers. The e-catalogs only showcase technologies for which the scaling readiness score is at least 8 for maturity of the idea and 7 for the level of use.

The graph below represents visually the scaling readiness status for this technology, you can see the label of each level by hovering your mouse cursor on the number.

Scaling readiness score of this technology

Maturity of the idea 7 out of 9

Semi-controlled environment: prototype

Level of use 7 out of 9

Common use by projects NOT connected to technology provider

Maturity of the idea										Level of use
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested
Countries with a blue colour: Testing ongoing

Countries where the technology is being tested or has been tested and adopted
Country	Testing ongoing	Tested	Adopted
Benin	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Burundi	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Cameroon	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Central African Republic	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Côte d'Ivoire	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Ethiopia	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Ghana	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Kenya	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Malawi	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Mozambique	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Nigeria	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Rwanda	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Senegal	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
South Sudan	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Tanzania, United Republic	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
The Democratic Republic of the Congo	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Togo	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Uganda	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Zimbabwe	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.

Agro-ecological zones where this technology can be used
AEZ	Subtropic - warm	Subtropic - cool	Tropic - warm	Tropic - cool
Arid	–		–
Semiarid	–		–
Subhumid		–		–
Humid

Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.

Goal 2: zero hunger

By improving crop resilience and reducing pest-related losses, IPM enhances food security and supports sustainable agricultural productivity.

Goal 13: climate action

By enhancing natural pest control and promoting adaptable farming practices

Goal 3: good health and well-being

IPM minimizes chemical pesticide use, lowering health risks for farmers and communities exposed to agrochemicals.

Goal 12: responsible production and consumption

IPM encourages the responsible use of natural resources by promoting sustainable pest management practices.

The technology strategies involves several steps:

1. Identification and Thresholds

Begin by identifying the type and number of harmful and beneficial organisms on the farm.
Establish critical thresholds in the community structure when economic injury to common bean crops occurs.

2. Monitoring and Surveillance

Monitor pests using simple tools such as traps, handheld magnifying glasses, or advanced high-resolution cameras mounted on drones for rapid surveillance over large areas.
Inspect weeds between emergence and canopy closure, as well as post-harvest to prevent carry-over.

3. Insect and Disease Surveys

Conduct insect and disease surveys simultaneously.
Repeat surveys at different growth stages, including emergence, early flowering, and pod filling.

4. Utilizing Software Tools

Use software tools and participate in specialized social media platforms to track and identify pests and natural enemies.
Refine IPM strategies based on data and insights obtained.

5. Threshold-Based Actions

When the threshold population of harmful organisms is reached, implement prescribed actions.
Avoid precautionary spraying with agro-chemicals and instead focus on specific IPM strategies tailored to the situation.

Last updated on Oct 21, 2026