Integrated Pest Management in Organic Vegetable Soybean Production

Vegetable soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) is an important crop and source of dietary protein in East and Southeast Asia. The total biological yield of vegetable soybean can be as high as 40 t/ha, consisting of 10 t of marketable pods and 30 t of residue that can enrich the soil or feed animals (Shanmugasundaram and Yan, 2004). The productivity of vegetable soybean is limited by insect pests and diseases (Talekar and Chen, 1983; Talekar, 1987; Yeh et al., 1991; Chen, 2003; Cho and Lee, 2003; Lai et al., 2004). There are insect species damage the crop starting from crop emergence to harvest (Talekar, 1987) and the crop losses can be as high as 100% (Talekar and Chen, 1983). Indiscriminate use of pesticides is common, which has led to pesticide resistance in insects such as beanflies and lepidopterous defoliators (Yeh et al., 1991). Pesticide residue may hinder the export potential of vegetable soybean. Increasing concern about environmental quality, human health, and safer agricultural products has led to the development of organic vegetable soybean production in Taiwan and Southeast Asia (Ma et al., 2008). Since the integrated pest management (IPM) strategy for organic vegetable soybean production systems has not been developed earlier, AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center developed an IPM strategy during 2006-2008.