Integrated pest and disease management for better agronomic crop production

Abstract

The disease and pest infestation is considered as one of the major constraints in better agronomic crop production for attaining anticipated yield to cater food security in the world. As agronomic crops (particularly cereals and pulses) are the leading sources of food in the world, management of their catastrophic pests and diseases needs special emphasis. At present, pests and diseases of agronomic crops are managed by various chemical control measures by using pesticides and fungicides. However, the disquiets regarding agronomic sustainability have instigated a wide and comprehensive utilization of integrated pest and disease management approaches. The said program is considered as an ecologically safer tactic for the control of various dreadful pests and diseases. Integration of approaches is aimed at reducing the health and ecological damages in response to chemicals by adopting certain cultural, mechanical, and biocontrol measures to manage various pests and diseases. However, efficacy of the control measure generally depends upon their effective utilization. Several cultural control measures such as cover crops, intercropping, trap crops, tillage practices, and planting time can reduce population of pests and disease severity but are not viable commercially under field conditions. Similarly, applicability of the biocontrol agents and plant extracts at large scale is also questionable. However, their efficacy may be increased by combination of other methods such as integrated use of the said cultural practices with reduced chemical applications. Therefore, in order to ensure better control and ecological sustainability, it is suggested that use of chemicals should be minimized by adopting integrated management strategies of pests and diseases.