Crop Protection Strategies For Subsistence Farmers

Top-down approaches to pest management, relying on agrochemical inputs that can be scarce, expensive, ecologically toxic, or inaccessible, have repeatedly failed to solve pest problems that affect small farmers in developing countries. Crop Protection Strategies for Subsistence Farmers offers an alternative. Drawing on examples from Latin Am

Drawing on examples from Latin America, Africa and South-East Asia, this book describes crop protection strategies that rely on farmers' knowledge and participation, local resources and alternative low-input methods, as a sensitive approach to develop and implement pest management schemes adjusted to farmers' needs and their socio-economic and agroecological conditions.

In their comprehensive paper, Montague Yudelman, Annu Ratta, and Davi Nygaard examine the key issues with regard to pest management and food production over the coming decades. They draw attention to the lack of adequate information on the magnitude and impact of pest losses; without such information, policymarkers are handicapped when devising strategies for meeting food needs. The authors address both chemical and nonchemical approaches to pest management, highlighting the importance of biotechnology. There is growing public sentiment against biotechnology but little appreciation as yet of its contributions to alleviating hunger by, among other things, controlling pest losses. The authors also address the important subject of the roles of different actors in pest management, most notably the private sector.

The availability of modern tools and transgenic crop protection technology has opened new vistas in the vast field of pest management. All these issues form the focus of the book, where they have been discussed by eminent scientists who are authority in their respective fields. The book describes the science and art of integrated pest management. It contains 48 chapters grouped into six sections which include topics ranging from: ? Impact on food security ? Breeding for resistance ? IPM in crops, fruits, vegetables ? Future strategies and policy issues. ? IPR related issues It also gives detailed information on emerging strategies and problems such as the role of biotechnology and the implications of IPR issues. The roles of IPM in sustaining food productivity, contribution of IPM in meeting economic, environmental and social costs have been elaborated. The role of diagnostic tools, weather forecasting, transgenic plants, biological control, and new chemicals in future IPM programmes and strategies to meet the challenges of pest adaptation have been highlighted. The need for improved information transfer, implementation and application of IPM has been discussed. Finally, it is essential to know the status of IPM, its future, challenges and constraints which have been extensively elaborated in the last chapter of this book. The book intends to fill the gap by providing the critical analysis of different management strategies having bearing on agriculture sustainability and environmental protection. The compilation of this book is unique in the sense that it does not deal with the conventional way of discussing pest management with respect to particular crops or the regions. It emphasizes on the other hand an overview of the management strategies with critical evaluation of each in the larger context of ecologically based pest management.

The world has made remarkable progress in maintaining adequate food supplies during the past quarter century by introducing yield-increasing technologies such as better genetics, crop protection products, and more efficient use of fertilizers and irrigations. Far more people depend on irrigation in the modern world than during the times of ancient Sumeria. The spread of irrigation has been the key factor in increasing global crop yields. But future scarcity present the single biggest threat to future food production. The shift of water from agriculture to the growing cities and industry almost certainly will impact global food production. This means that dryland agriculture will be increasingly important in meeting food requirement for the growing population. Advaces in plant genetics and agronomic conservation technologies, when considered in concert, continue to provide the greatest opportunities to achieve sustainability and profitability in dryland agriculture and will continue to be the focus of the ARS research program. The ARS is please to join the crop Science Society of America and international center for Agriculture Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) in sponsoring a symposium “Challenges and strategies for Dryland Agriculture” at the Trisocieties Annual Meeting in November 2002 at Indianapolis, IN. This special publication contains an impressive series of paper by international group of experts on dryland agricultural production, conservation, and policy. The principles, philosophies, and technologies presented in this publication have the potential to contribute to improve food security and livelihoods for the people in dryland regions of the world.

This book focuses on current food shortages and on the impact of pests in reducing world food supplies. At present, total worldwide food losses from pests are estimated to be about 45 percent. Preharvest losses alone, from insects, plant pathogens, and weeds, are estimated at about 30 percent. Additional postharvest losses from microorganisms, insects, and rodents range from about 10 to 20 percent. The contributors present data on the extent of these kinds of crop losses and analyze immediate and long-term pest management strategies. Emphasis is given to an evaluation of the effectiveness of integrated controls and the various new nonchemical pest controls used to reduce crop and livestock losses. The current worldwide environmental problems associated with both large-scale pesticide use and other pest control methods are also analyzed, including the impact that increased use of pesticides can be expected to have on the human environment. While the data included are technical, the presentation and analysis will be of interest to both the scientific community and the general public.

Integrated Pest Management – Dissemination and Impact, Volume 2 is a sequel to Integrated Pest Management – Innovation-DevelopmentProcess, Volume 1. The book focuses on the IPM systems in the developed countries of North America, Europe and Australia, and the developing countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa. One of the major impedimentsin the dissemination and adoption of the IPM innovation is the complexity of the technology and reaching the vast population of farmers especially in the developing countries. The IPM-innovation development process is incomplete without the diffusion and adoption of IPM methods by the end users, and through its consequences. In spite of all the efforts in the developed and developing countries, the adoption of IPM is still low with few exceptions. The book covers the underlying concepts and methodologies of the diffusion of innovation theory and the program evaluation; and reviews the progress and impact of IPM programs implemented in the industrialized, the green revolution and the subsistence agricultural systems of the world. Forty-four experts from entomology, plant pathology, environmental science, agronomy, anthropology, economics and extensioneducationfromAfrica, Asia, Australia, Europe,NorthAmerica and South America have discussed impact of IPM with an interdisciplinary perspective. Each one of the experts is an authority in his or her eld of expertise. The researchers, farmers’education,supportingpoliciesofthegovernmentsandmarketforcesarethe elements of the IPM innovation system to achieve wider adoption of IPM strategy in agriculture.