Pests and diseases can severely reduce crop yields. However, the use of synthetic agrochemicals to control them threatens human and environmental health, by polluting our soils and water systems, causing diseases, and killing beneficial organisms. Management of pests and diseases in organic farming requires not only renouncing synthetic agrochemicals, but including integrated approaches (e.g., companion cropping, push-pull technology, crop rotations, biorationals, i.e., botanicals, etc.).

This factsheet introduces the integrated ecological approach to organic pest and disease management, how to best prevent problems and direct control methods. The information is based on long-term experiments and on-farm research conducted in the scope of three projects across different countries in Africa, as well as Bolivia and India. Further products in the series, e.g., posters, videos and more, are linked in the ‘Further information’ section on the last page of this factsheet.