Thursday, 29 December 2016

Building Resilience for Pest Management: Lessons from Organic Agriculture

The practice of modern agriculture is typically considered as unstable. In landscapes occupied by crops, we usually observe only one plant species taking over a huge amount of land. Cereals, fruits and vegetables are cultivated worldwide almost exclusively in monocrops. Under these conditions, pest and diseases outbreaks are more frequent and losses are unavoidable, if control methods were not applied. Pests may reproduce faster, and after crop harvest, these insects, mites and fungi spores, may spread and infect adjacent areas. 

ornithology impact factor
Synthetic broadspectrum pesticides are usually used, eliminating possible natural enemies. Simple substitution of inputs (for example, replacement of soluble synthetic chemical fertilization and pesticides by high doses of organic fertilizers and green pesticides) is not a suitable solution. In general, green pesticides or biological control agents demands more time to be effective against pests.