The soils and agro-climate of Bangladesh are highly conducive to produce quality vegetables; over 100 types of vegetables are grown almost throughout the year. During the last 10 years, vegetable area and production have increased considerably. But farmers often fail to obtain the expected yields from vegetable cultivation due to heavy damages caused by a number of pests. In order to protect the vegetable crops from pest damage, farmers resort to frequent use of poisonous pesticides. Vegetable crops consume about 10% of the total pesticide use in Bangladesh . Surveys in Jessore district have shown that eggplant farmers apply pesticides almost everyday or about 150 times in a season without recognizing the pests or their infestation rates. Other vegetable crops also receive frequent applications of pesticides. In spite of heavy use of pesticides farmers fail to control the pests satisfactorily. This practice has greatly increased the cost of vegetable production and farmers' economic returns have decreased substantially. Moreover, pesticide residues remaining on the vegetables are carried in the food chain and have posed a great problem for the health of the producers and consumers. More importantly, heavy use of pesticides and their residues on the vegetables have created negative implications for export of vegetables.

At the backdrop of the present vegetable production systems and problems, IPM CRSP research and development activities have been targeted for vegetable crops through appraisal process participated by research scientists, university teachers, socio-economists, agricultural educationists, agricultural extensionists, and agricultural planners.

IPM CRSP is a multidisciplinary and multi- institutional program. All types of pests, such as insect pests, disease pathogens including nematodes, and weeds, are addressed to develop IPM technologies. Scientists from Bangladesh and overseas institutes are involved in IPM CRSP research and development programs. Organizations from Bangladesh collaborating with the program are: Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), Plant Protection wing of the Department of Agricultural Extension (PPW-DAE), and CARE-Bangladesh. In vegetable research, BARI is the lead public institute in the country and therefore, majority of the scientists associated with IPM CRSP belong to BARI . The collaborating foreign institutions are four US Universities (Virginia Tech, Penn State University , Ohio State University and Purdue University ), Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and National Crop Protection Center (NCPC, Philippines)

Every year, Bangladeshi and overseas scientists review the research progress and prepare work plans for the following year keeping in view the IPM needs and problems faced by the farmers. The pest management measures, targeted for developing IPM technology and tactics for vegetables, include those which (a) are relatively safe for environment, (b) leave no or minimal pesticide residues ensuring production of healthier and safer vegetables for the consumers, and (c) ensure better economic returns for the producers.

Over 90% of the IPM CRSP research and development activities are conducted in farmer fields of different areas through farmer participation. The farmer-participatory researches have acted as 'result-demonstration' as well as 'practical training' for the farmers. Currently, IPM CRSP activities are going on in the districts of Gazipur, Jessore, Comilla, Lalmanirhat and Chittagong . The vegetable IPM technologies that have been found promising and have created impact at the field level of different areas are briefly described.