ABSTRACT
United Nations Environment Program states that selection pressure is the major factor in the development of resistance. After decades of increasing human and economic costs, and decreasing benefits brought on by almost total reliance on simplistic methods of chemical control, integrated pest management has been introduced to remedy the problems. Farmers have made direct cash savings by basing pest control on need, rather than by predetermined and regular sprayings. The use of any single agent may always lead to the development of some degree of pest tolerance as the result of genetic selection. Careful monitoring of populations of crop pests is essential to the success of integrated pest management (IPM) techniques. Genetic pest- and disease-resistance, one of the major tools of IPM, is almost the environmentally ideal form of pest control for several reasons: no biocide residues are left on crops; no biocide pollution of the environment occurs.
