IPM (Integrated Pest Management) is a strategy which encourages beneficial insects to help control harmful pests in commercial crops. Harmful pests are kept below a threshold limit where they have only an minor affect on crop quality and yield. IPM is seen as the "way of the future" as it addresses growing public awareness of the health risks from applying strong chemicals to control insect pests on food crops. IPM considers all growing and cultural practices that could affect the pest population. By changing the way crops are grown, the overall number of pests can be controlled.  Integrated Pest Management is a central theme in crop production around the world and promises to address community concerns over misuse of pesticides. The move toward IPM in Australian vegetable crops is still fairly recent but there are already some success stories. IPM is a process of continual improvement but is not yet widely practiced due mainly to community demand for produce with ZERO insects ... even beneficial ones. IPM can become part of a fully integrated farm management system beginning with management strategies for a single key insect pest, usually after conventional insecticides have failed to adequately control the pest. Once successful strategies are developed for the major pest, the focus shifts on to controlling other pests.  IPM Technologies led by Dr Paul Horne, is the principal provider of IPM services in Victoria

Victorians enjoy clean and healthy local vegetable produce, amongst best in the world and we are very sensitive to chemicals being used on our food. This high quality is prized by growers and validated by independant quality auditors. Plant pests and diseases threaten vegetable quality and farm profitability. When a significant crop problem is identified which is unlikely to correct naturally the grower may choose to apply a plant protection product to the crop. Plant protection products are important tools in high volume food production systems. They enable the grower reliably produce economic quantities of the high quality food we expect on our dinner tables. Misuse of these same products would undermine consumer confidence in vegetables as clean, green and healthy foods. This public concern for safe and healthy foods is protected by government legislation regulating the safe use of all plant protection products in Australia. In Victoria, our Department of Primary Industries regularly monitor Victorian fruit and vegetable produce for traces of farm chemical and other contaminants. The results of many years of residue monitoring have concluded that Victorian grown produce is safe and clean.