ABSTRACT
Traditional and/or peasant agriculture is a prominent rural activity in most parts of the developing world. Insects and related arthropods have major roles as crop pests, causes of disease, food, medicinals, and are important in myth and folklore. Traditional farmers rely on a variety of management practices to deal with agricultural pest problems. In addition to manipulating crop spatial and temporal diversity, farmers also manipulate other cropping system components such as soil, microclimate, crop genetics and chemical environment to control pests. Since the early 1970s, the corn earworm Heliothis zea is the most significant maize pest in the mountainous part of Ancash in the northern Peruvian Andes. Unlike modern monocultures, traditional agroecosystems reflect the priorities of peasant farmers; they produce a varied diet, achieve a diversity of sources income, use locally available resources, minimize the risk to farmers from crop losses, protect against the incidence of pests and disease and make efficient use of available labor.
