A major pest in Central American maize production is the fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda. To manage pest outbreaks, small-scale farmers tend to rely on unsustainable practices, including improper use of pesticides. Many low-cost and environmentally-sound alternatives, including conservation biological control (CBC), have a high potential for adoption in subsistence agricultural production systems. However, experience in the developing world has shown that adoption levels remain low and farmers encounter various roadblocks to successfully implement those practices in their fields.

CBC success is partly determined by the degree to which the agro-ecosystem permits appropriate levels of natural control. Since most natural enemies have ecological requirements beyond the field edge, the agricultural landscape plays a principal role in setting natural control potential within farmers’ fields. We quantified the opportunities for efficient FAW management existing within the agro-landscape. Pest outbreaks were associated with a number of a-biotic and biotic factors, including the abundance of natural enemies. Abundance of key natural enemies was linked to within-field management and specificities as to features of the agricultural landscape. For each of these natural enemies, appropriate spatial scale was determined using Focus 2.1 (Holland et al., 2004) and ecological neighborhoods were identified accordingly. Through slash-and-burn agriculture, most of Central America’s agro-landscapes have been converted into mosaics of habitats at different successional stages. We proved that the overall successional stage, physiognomy and diversity of the agro-landscape affect the assemblage of generalist predators and parasitoids available for natural FAW control and as such farmers’ likeliness to adopt CBC technologies.