Agro-ecological Pest Management
Agro-ecologists opine that interaction between healthy soils and healthy plants is fundamental to agro-ecologically based pest management. They also encourage biodiversification as the primary technique to evoke regulation of pests sustainably. Besides re
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Agro-ecological Pest Management
Abstract Agro-ecologists opine that interaction between healthy soils and healthy plants is fundamental to agro-ecologically based pest management. They also encourage biodiversification as the primary technique to evoke regulation of pests sustainably. Besides regulation of pest populations through enhanced activity of biological-control agents, biodiversity performs a variety of ecological services including the production of food and recycling of nutrients in the agro-ecosystems. One of the simplest forms of biodiversification such as legume-based crop rotations can simultaneously optimize soil fertility and pest regulation. Crop rotations enhance yields by interrupting insect, disease, and weed life cycles. The microbiological activity of the soil (population of fungal and bacterial antagonists and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that better resist pest attack) is also enhanced by crop rotations. Agro-ecologically based pest management makes full use of natural and cultural practices and methods, including host resistance and biological control. In order to stabilize the population of pest species throughout the food web, the new designs should concentrate on managing the farm environment through ecosystem enhancements (i.e., landscape ecology), crop attributes, or other means. Keywords Agro-ecology • Economic thresholds • Ecosystem enhancements • Pest management
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Introduction
The conventional agricultural intensification is threatened with environmental crisis. The environmental crisis is rooted in genetic homogeneity; soil salinization; ground water depletion; pesticide pollution of soil, water, and food chains; land degradation; and associated vulnerability, which raise serious doubts about the sustainability of modern agriculture. In the foreseeable future, the continuing growth of the human population, which likely reaches 9.5 billion by 2050, requires that we should find ways for sustainable intensification of crop production to increase food production. Crop pests such as insects, mites, diseases (caused by fungi, bacteria, virus, and nematodes), and weeds are one of the major limiting factors in crop production. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2016 P.P. Reddy, Sustainable Intensification of Crop Production, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2702-4_18
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Agro-ecological Pest Management
They are responsible for more than 30 % crop loss worldwide which is equivalent of food required to feed over one billion people (Birch et al. 2011). One of the possible approaches to increase food production is to reduce crop losses caused by pests and diseases. The present-day farmers are selecting crops which give high yields and high palatability that are more susceptible to pests by overlooking natural resistance for productivity. The pest management at present is mainly based on chemically based pesticides which give short-term solutions that are harmful to human health and the environment. The negative impact of pest management using pesticides include development of pest
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