A study by New Zealand Plant & Food Research scientists shows that Integrated Fruit Production (IFP) can work just as well as organic growing methods for biodiversity.
Dr Louise Malone compared the biodiversity of modern best practice commercial apple orchards, with organic orchards.
The survey of plants and insects caught in traps in 15 Hawke’s Bay orchards found orchards managed using the IFP system had similar or slightly better biodiversity index scores than the organic orchards.
IFP
Working in partnership with the apple and pear industry, scientists and growers developed the IFP system specifically to find ways to control pests with the least impact on the environment.
Once proven in trials, IFP was rapidly adopted in commercial apple orchards in the late 1990s.
Practices such as monitoring pest numbers with pheromone traps minimised the use of chemicals. That made it possible to make the best use of what is now the main weapon against pests: introduced natural enemies, or biological control agents.
Results of comparisons
IFP is a mature system so the Plant & Food Research team had a look at the impact it was having on plants and insects, and compared IFP orchards’ biodiversity with organic orchards.
They found insect species sometimes differed between the IFP and organic orchards but every orchard had ample species to carry out ecological functions such as nutrient cycling and pest control.
The main difference was that the traps collected around 10 times more Froggatt’s apple leafhoppers in organic orchards than in the IFP orchards. The sap-sucking leafhopper Edwardsiana froggatti is a serious pest, causing leaf damage and affecting bud and fruit development.
Apart from this, the survey showed undetectable differences in pests across orchard types and no differences in the abundance and diversity of the key natural enemies that help to keep apple pests in check.
The results showed that IFP protects the beneficial species as intended. Native or endemic species made up around 40% of the total in all orchard types.
According to Dr Malone, IFP works—perhaps better than expected—and that the fauna in IFP orchards is just as rich as it is in organic orchards.
See this article in Tree Fruit Aug 2017
