Certis Spain has been working on the development of a new Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programme to control a variety of pests and diseases in leaf vegetables. The objective is to develop a programme that achieves zero crop residues within two to three years.
Trials were carried out on lettuce to compare a Certis IPM programme of biorationals and limited conventional chemicals to the Standard chemical programme used by growers with a view to achieving results that could be extrapolated to other leaf vegetables classified as minor crops. These minor crops could include escarole, lamb's lettuce, sprouts and shoots, cresses, land cresses, roman rocket, red mustard, baby leaf, spinach, chards, endives and aromatic herbs.
The project was developed for PROEXPORT, an association of more than 55 large producers and exporters of fruits and vegetables.