Abstract
Control of vector mosquitoes breeding in rice fields is important in rice production areas which are still expanding worldwide. Control of rice field mosquitoes is difficult due to the extensive rice field areas including natural, artificial and social heterogeneity and wide flight ranges of the adult mosquitoes. Although the necessity of integrated management has been well recognized, there have been established no practical methodologies for rice field mosquito control. With the hope of overcoming this situation, I propose a concept of horizontal integration. Heterogeneity and wide flight ranges are prerequisites for implementation of horizontal integration. The salient feature of horizontal integration is to practice a single control measure at each subarea (for example, one village) but at all subareas throughout the entire target area. Each subarea selects a single measure that is easiest to be implemented there technically and also from socio-economic aspects so that control measures are not overlapped in each subarea. This contrasts with vertical integration in which multiple control measures are overlapped at one locality. For control of rice field mosquitoes and diseases transmitted by them, horizontal integration has advantages with respect to control effectiveness, practicability, economy, biodiversity preservation and community participation.
