This third edition of the Guidelines incorporates over a decade of experience. A new emphasis is on total quality of sustainable production, as perceived by IOBC. This is to address the increasing number of critical consumers who are no longer willing to use only external appearance, acceptable taste and low price as their main yardstick for choosing how to buy food. The total quality concept considers consumers’ desire for high standards with respect to food safety, production methods respecting environment and animal welfare, protection of farm worker welfare and ethical practice. 

The new guidelines also explain how ‘green’ and ‘yellow’ lists of pesticides can be developed on a crop-specific basis by regional organisations involved in IP labelling. The IOBC concept of IP states clearly that the use of pesticides is not an integral part per se, but the last option when preventive and other direct control methods do not produce acceptable results. Green list candidate pesticides must assess and exclude those with negative characteristics for: toxicity to humans/key natural enemies/other organisms; environmental pollution potential; ability to stimulate pests and diseases; selectivity; persistence; potential to develop resistance in the target pest; incomplete or missing information; need for use. ‘Yellow’ list candidates are those that fail to qualify for the green list but can only violate the criteria for selectivity, resistance potential, toxicity to natural enemies or other organisms, and are only permitted for precise purposes under clearly defined restrictions. 

The guidelines for field grown vegetables completes IOBC’s series of crop-specific IP. They address the multiple problems of consumer demand for cosmetic quality with zero pesticide residues, a highly competitive and volatile market, trend of increasing production costs and falling prices for produce, pressure to reduce labour costs and lack of economic motivation for vegetable producers to improve sustainable practice. The guidelines cover biodiversity and ecological infrastructure; planting site; crop rotation; choice of cultivars; irrigation; soil and nutrient management; integrated crop protection; pesticide handling; post-harvest management; worker health and safety; inspection procedures. Crop-specific tables are given for over 25 vegetables, including brassicas, root crops, leafy salads, potato, onion, legumes, cucurbits, tomato, peppers, spinach and melons.

Guidelines for Integrated Production. Principles and technical guidelines. 3rd edition, 2004. Eds. Boller, Avilla, Joerg, Malavolta, Wijnands and Esbjerg. International Organization for Biological Control wprs Bulletin 27 (2)Guidelines for Integrated Production of Field grown vegetables. Technical Guidelines 111, 2005. Eds. Malavolta, Boller and Wijnands. International Organization for Biological Control wprs Bulletin 28 (5)Guidelines can be ordered via http://www.iobc-wprs.org/pub/index.html