Soybean production is usually performed on large scales, requiring simple but efficient pest management to be successful. Soybean fields are inhabited by several species of arthropods, demanding constant development of management practices to prevent pest outbreaks. More recently, stink bugs have become the most important pest group of soybeans in the Neotropics, responsible for up to 60% of the applied insecticides in Brazil. Natural enemies represent an important mortality factor that can keep the damage caused by stink bugs below the economic threshold levels without additional control actions. Thus, Conservation Biological Control (CBC) strategies can be adopted to preserve or even promote the increase in such natural enemies in the fields, or alternatively, massive releases of biocontrol agents in Augmentative Biological Control (ABC) programs could be adopted. Simple practices such as reducing insecticide use (with the adoption of economic thresholds), prioritizing harmless insecticides or biopesticides, and planting resistant soybean cultivars have been adopted in Brazil with positive results. The challenges to increasing the adoption of more complex stink bug management in commodity crops such as soybean may be overcome using the more recent economic incentives in the global agenda of decarbonized agriculture. The potential and challenges of conservation and augmentative biological control are further discussed in this review.

The agricultural production in the Neotropical region is highly affected by the attack of pests and diseases. Due to the overuse of pesticides, sustainable methods of control are in demand, such as biological control. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) considered the use of Biological control as a method to suppress the population of pests in several field agricultural systems and in protected crops systems. Biological control is generally appreciated today as an important component of IPM, and the demand for it is likely to spread as the IPM programs develop worldwide. The tropics present an important region for the application of biological control. The Neotropical region is characterized by its rich biodiversity, resulting in a wide range of natural enemies of pests represented by parasitoids, predators, and pathogens. Parasitoids are the natural enemies most used around the world for biological control. In this chapter, we present biological control programs using parasitoids established in the Neotropical region to control key pests of economic importance. Agricultural practices that maintain and enhance the action of natural enemies in crops will be reviewed, as the challenges and potential for the establishment of Biological Control programs using parasitoids in the Neotropical region.