The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations promotes Integrated Pest Management (IMP) as a pillar of sustainable agriculture. IPM emphasizes the growth of a healthy crop with the least possible disruption to agro-ecosystems and encourages natural pest control mechanisms. IPM requires competence in three areas: prevention, monitoring and intervention. Prevention is the use of strategies to prevent pest populations from building up to economically-damaging levels. Monitoring involves scouting for pests and diseases to determine if intervention should take place. In addition to giving supporting data for making a management decision, regular monitoring is also important for evaluating the success or failure of control strategies. Various methods of intervention can be used which include chemical, biological, cultural, sanitary and mechanical controls.

The ARC-TSC developed a scout training course to empower farmers to identify, locate and determine the severity of pest and disease infestations. This information can then be used to make decisions on intervention. Scouting courses on pest and diseases was developed for avocado, macadamia, mango and litchi. The scout courses enable farmers to:

Accurately identification of the key pest and diseases,
Provide information on how to locate the important pests and diseases, and
Provide information how to record pests and diseases.

No intervention measures should be taken against a pest or a disease unless it is known to be present and present in significant numbers to cause economic damage.

Therefore, it is important for mango producers to have readily available, up-to-date information on the identification of pests and diseases affecting mango production in South-Africa. The ARC – Agricultural Research Council released the MangoPDDDI app that provides comprehensive and updated info on:

• Mango Pest & Disease Control Measures
• Comprehensive Mango Disease Information
• Comprehensive Mango Pests Information
• Comprehensive Mango Damages Information
• Comprehensive Mango Disorders Information
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