Abstract
Plant volatiles play a vital role in mediating ecological interactions between plants, herbivores and natural enemies. These semiochemicals serve as plant defence mechanisms, repelling herbivores and attracting their natural enemies to suppress pest populations. This review examines herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs), especially in the context of Brassica crops, including canola and related species pest management, detailing their mechanisms, applications, and implications for integrated pest management (IPM). While HIPVs offer promising avenues for sustainable pest control, challenges such as environmental variability, inconsistent field performance, and large-scale implementation barriers persist. Rather than an isolated technique, effective use in Brassica systems requires strategic integration within the IPM framework by applying them (i) in combination with crop and non-crop diversification schemes, (ii) with precision digital technologies to target pests and natural enemies in cost-effective manners, (iii) for trapping to broaden the scope of monitoring, and (iv) in natural enemy learning before inundative releases. Drawing upon existing knowledge on the use of plant volatiles for pest management in agricultural systems, this review proposes a Brassica-focused novel conceptual framework that integrates HIPVs in ecology, agroecosystem design, and implementation pathways to reduce chemical insecticide dependence in field crops systems.