Let's begin with understanding each word:

Integrated: It focus on the interaction between the pests, crops, control methods and the environment rather than on individual weeds, insects or diseases. 

Pest: Pest is a species that conflicts with our profit, health or convenience or the organism that caused economic damage to human belongings. 

Management: The way to keep pests below the level where they can cause economic damage but it doesn’t mean eradication of pest. 

So, we can say IPM is the effective and economically sensitive approach to pest management that utilizes all suitable techniques in compatible manner to reduce the status of pests to the tolerable level and encourages natural pest control mechanisms for healthy growth of crops. 

The strategies of IPM is based on "Doing nothing" when the pest population is below the economic injury level, and "Reduce number on preventive basis" when economic threshold level is reached. The use of chemical pesticides may result increase in the risk to health of staff members as well as environmental health. It is eco-friendly and sustainable long-term solution for  pest management. Financial savings, Planning in advance and timely management, no phytotoxicity etc. some strong points of IPM. 

Whenever we talk about the Integrated Pest Management, somehow, we talk about the steps involved in the process. The steps are: 

1. Inspection and monitoring 

2. Identification of pest and pest biology: 

 Species identification and knowledge of pest biology is the important step as insect/pests differs in their behaviour and lifecycle. 

3. Determination of an Action threshold:

Action threshold is the level of pest at which the specific pest is not tolerable and hence preventive measure or control measure must be followed. 

4. Choose the methods/ Tactics of IPM:

It involves different management techniques i.e. Cultural ( rotating crops, interplanting, altering sowing dates, managing weeds, trap plants etc.), Physical (Hand picking, traps, barriers, pruning infected parts etc.), Biological (predators, parasites, and Parasitoids) and Chemical methods (insecticides, pesticides, and other chemicals) . Chemical control is the last option of IPM. The chemical is used in limit that can safely reduce the pest number. 

5. Evaluate:

The last step is to evaluate whether the used method is successful or not. 

IPM may require more manpower, more time than the traditional way for pest management, or there may be problem in transfer of technology but it is the best alternative to keep environment healthy. As IPM focuses on reducing chemicals, the natural enemies are conserved. This is the best approach to change our traditional mind of controlling pest with chemicals to the modern concept of reducing the number of pest by stepwise (cultural, mechanical, biological and chemical within limit) control measures.