Biological pest control for sustainable agriculture in Egypt

Abstract

Biological control is the use of beneficial organisms (predators, parasitoids, or pathogens) to decrease the population density of pest organisms (insects, mites, or plant pathogens). It is a main component of sustainable agriculture which is a system for maintaining the production on the long run without degrading the environmental resources. With the increased consciousness about the hazards of traditional chemicals in agriculture, it was noticed a remarkable decrease in the use of pesticides and an increase in the use of biological control agents (natural enemies). Biological control in any country depends on many factors, of the top importance are three namely: an abundance of natural enemies in the country, mass production, and field application of these natural enemies for the pest control. Egypt, like many other countries, has the potentiality to have a biological control industry. In this chapter, we discussed the status and potential of biological control in sustainable agriculture in Egypt through studying the abundance, the mass production, and the field application of natural enemies. Studied natural enemies included parasitoids, predators, predatory mites, and entomopathogenic nematodes.