Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2017) 6(11): 1476-1495 1476 Review Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.611.176 Area Wide Pest Management: Concept and Approaches Pradeep Kumar Dalal 1 *, Mandeep Rathee 1 and Jaywant Kumar Singh 2 1 Department of Entomology, 2 Department of Plant Pathology, CCSHAU, Hisar, 125004, Haryana, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Pest cause colossal losses to the tune of 70 per cent if control measures are not administered and even if pest control measures are taken up pests cause losses to the tune of 40 per cent (Oerke et al., 1994). Pests also pose threat to the agricultural trade by infesting the high value crops which is to be exported. The countries engaged in importing the agricultural produce take a serious not of this threat and they prevent this threat by imposing Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary measures (SPS) over countries exporting agricultural produce (Henson and Loader 2001). This measure is taken to prevent human life, livestock and crops from attack of invasive pests. In some situations countries also impose ban on consignments of agricultural produce from exporting counties if the desired consignment is found to have been infested with pests of quarantine importance. So an effective pest mitigation strategy is required which comply with SPS measures and prevent the agricultural trade to get affected. One such strategy is Area Wide Pest Management (AWPM). Few Scientists attempted to define AWPM strategy. Dickerson et al., (1999) stated that ―Area- Wide Pest Management is the systematic reduction of a target key pest(s) to predetermined population levels through the use of uniformly applied control measures over large geographical areas clearly defined by biologically based criteria‖. As per Lindquist (2000) ―An area-wide insect control programme is a long-term planned International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 11 (2017) pp. 1476-1495 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Pests cause widespread losses even if control measures are administered. They are hurting the prospects of many agricultural produce exporting countries. On numerous occasions developing countries have faced embargo owing to the presence of pests in the produce. Area wide pest management (AWPM) is clearly one of the strategies to mitigate such pests which pose threat to the people, crops, livestock and foreign exchange of the countries. AWPM is the long term planned campaign against pest population over a large geographical area. It not only involve traditional approaches like cultural and biological control but also advanced molecular based novel tactics like sterile insect technique (SIT), release of insect carrying dominant lethal (RIDL), Cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) through Wolbachia. However, apart from these tactics some countries have made pest free areas (PFA) where, stricter norms and laws have been implemented to curb the movement of pest to these areas. AWPM is clearly; one of the methods which comply with sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures of World Trade Organisation (WTO) and it has the potential to help producers, traders, packers and exporters, etc around the world. Keywords Area wide pest managemnent, Agriculture. Accepted: 12 September 2017 Available Online: 10 November 2017 Article Info