Mandate
- Develops and formulates guidelines and standards on management of plant pests.
- Provides technical assistance, coordination and where necessary supervision over regional facilities, e.g. Regional Crop Protection Centers (RCPCs), Surveillance and Early Warning System (SEWS), IPM and Biological Control Agents (BCAs)–related national as well as bilateral/multinational technical program implementations are involved.
- Assists and supports in regional implementation of national/bilateral technical program cooperation in crop protection.
- Provides facilities for plant pests and disease diagnostic; mass production and rearing of biological control agents for field distribution training for crop protection staff and extension agents; and proper evaluation of national programs and projects on crop protection.
- Conducts adaptive research pertaining to pest management and other potential BCAs.
- Acts as the central monitoring arm and repository of regional pest data.
Functions
The Bureau of Plant Industry-Crop Pest Management Division (BPI-CPMD) services and functions are further strengthened with the approval and issuance of Department Order No. 9 Series of 2020 (Rationalizing and Strengthening the Crop Pest Management Functions, Services and Related Task of the Department of Agriculture). BPI-CPMD serves as the lead agency in its implementation. This is part of the DA’s policy to provide cost-efficient, effective, healthy, ecologically sound, and smart crop pest management measures to support the government’s intensified food production programs and activities in order to ensure food security and food resiliency. Strengthening and sustainability of the different functions of CPMD as exemplified in DO No.9 which includes:
- Plant Pest Surveillance, Monitoring and Forecasting
- Plant Pest Diagnostic
- Plant Pest Management
- Biological Control Agents Mass Production
- Competency Training and Extension on Crop Pest Management
- Biosecurity and Quarantine Measures
- Applied and Adaptive Crop Pest Management Research
- Public Advocacy on Crop Pest Management
1. Plant Pest Surveillance, Monitoring and Forecasting. It focuses on the collection and recording of data on pest presence or absence by survey, monitoring, or other procedures. Second activity is monitoring of plant pests which deals with the verification of phytosanitary situations and monitoring of plant pests deals with characteristics of a pest populations.
The last activity is Plant Pest Forecasting. It analyzes the perception of danger based on observed biotic and abiotic factors that would directly affect crop quality and quantity of production. The prediction is based on actual pest populations that can or cannot cause economic damage. Systematic data sets for forecasting pest populations over a long period of time are prerequisites for eventual efficient and effective plant pest management.
2. Plant Pest Diagnostics. This mandate provides plant health analysis and identification of any of the vertebrate and invertebrate pests such as weeds, insects, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, phytoplasma, and viruses directly involved in the occurrence of any plant abnormalities.
3. Plant Pest Management. It provides control-based strategy that focuses on the prevention of pests or their damage through a combination of techniques such as biological control, chemical control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices, and use of resistant varieties.
4. Biological Control Agents Mass Production. This requires mass rearing of pure and virulent biological control agents (BCA) to control pests. It includes the use of beneficial insects, fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and other living organisms to control specific pests of plants.
5. Competency Training and Extension on Crop Pest Management. It involves the learning of personnel on the basic foundation and principles of the different management and control strategies against pests and diseases.
6. Biosecurity and Quarantine Measures. This mandate involves in preventing the introduction and/or spread of any sources of inoculum of any of the pathogenic diseases or destructive insects, to minimize the risk of transmission and epidemics. It employs quarantine measures which separate and restrict the movement of plants infested/infected with crop pests.
7. Applied and Adaptive Crop Pest Management Research. This aims in solving practical pest management problems, which includes efficacy trials under laboratory and field conditions, and simple methods in plant pest diagnostics. Results thus derived have specific commercial objectives in the forms of products, procedures or services that are made readily available to the farmers for utilization.
8. Public Advocacy on Crop Pest Management. It covers a wide range of activities on pests affecting local or national policy or legislation on crop pest management. Advocacy includes pest management activities, community education, capacity building, relationship building, forming crop pest management networks, and leadership development.
CONSTITUENT SECTIONS
Pest Forecasting Section
- Conducts pest monitoring and post-border pest surveillance, analysis of pest incidence reports and issuance of pest advisory.
- Undertakes ecological pests assessment.
Bio-Control and Integrated pest Management (IPM) Section
- Oversees production, maintenance, distribution,screening and assessment of the effectiveness of bio-con agents.
- Provides direction in the establishment of sustainable bio-control agents production system in communities.
- Undertakes field verification of IPM activities and conducts assessment of RCPCs and the network bio-control laboratories.
Plant Health and Pest Status Section
- Provides national plant health status.
- Develops and maintain a repository of pest data, specimen-based pest list and other crop protection information.
- Determines and reports the pest incidence and resistence (i.e., invasive, outbreak or epidemic).
ACTIVITIES
- Biological Control – Identification, evaluation, conservation, mass production of beneficial organism for field application and integration with existing pest management practices.
- Integrated Pest Management – Identification,Development, Verification and field application of existing novel sustainable pest management practices.
- Pest Monitoring – Formulation, development, verification and field application of sound pest monitoring and surveillance activities in coordination with RFUs, RCPCs and LGUs.
- Pest Museum – Maintained at the Crop Pest Management Division for ready reference and preserved collections.
- Technical Assistance – To clientele, peers and the general public in the identification and management of crop pests, serve as resource speakers on different crop pest management topics, hands-on training on mass production of biological control agents.
- Pest Clinic – Inquiries regarding insect pests, diseases, rodents and weeds, these are identified, preserve and management recommendations are given to the clienteles.
TECHNOLOGY
- Trichogramma – Egg parasitoid utilized as biocon agent to control asian corn borer (t. evanerscens), rice stemborer (t.japonicum) and vegetable lepidopterous pest (t. Chilonis).
- Metarhizium – Green muscardine fungus used as bioagent versus rice black bug, rhinoceros beetle of coconut, coconut leaf beetle, etc.
- Chilocorus nigrita – Primarily feeds on the family Diaspididae namely; Aspidiotus destructor (armoured scale) on coconut and Lepidosaphes ulmi (mussel scale) on lanzones but also has been reported to feed on whiteflies, aphids and psyllids.
- Trichoderma – Most common fungal antagonist and used as compost fungus activator.
- Lacewing – Presy on aphids, thrips mealybugs, whiteflies, armyworm, budworms, bollworms, borers, corn earworms, scale insects, psyllids, etc.
- Telsimia nitida – feeds on Aspidiotus destructor (Armoured scale) and lepidosaphes ulmi (mussel scale).
- Earwig – (Chelisoches) feeds on coconut leaf beetle Brontispa longissima; (Euborella annulata) feeds on corn borer and insects pests of vegetables.