It is all too readily forgotten that agriculture still is the most important livelihood base for the majority of people living in developing countries (Abate et al., 2000; Lenné, 2000), and it follows that crop protection is an important dimension given the extent of crop losses to pests seen across the globe (Oerke, 2006). However, as crop protection is but a part of a bigger picture it can be difficult, if not impossible, to make a link between it and poverty alleviation (Lenné, 2000). IPM is the current ideology as to the form that crop protection should take, and is being promoted on a global scale within both developed and developing countries. But while its appeal is understandable, is IPM really the road we should encourage farmers in developing countries to follow? This chapter will address this question but I will put forward a set of arguments to spark a critical analysis in the mind of the reader rather than provide an “answer.” But it has to be said that this aim generates a number of conundrums.

First, the chances are that most readers of this chapter, like the author, will not be one of those farmers that form the basis of the discussion. Thus I am asking readers unconnected and remote in just about every sense of the term (spatially, culturally, economically, etc.) from the conditions of those farmers to ruminate on ways in which they can be “helped.”