Controlling agricultural pests

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

Pest management is the domain of entomologists, ecologists, biologists, agriculturalists, toxicologists and chemists. The subject is highly complex and a multidisciplinary approach seems necessary. Unfortunately, however, there has been a tendency for each specialist to only consider his/her own discipline, thereby ignoring the numerous interactions between the dynamics of pest populations, the environment, crops, etc. Far preferable is that agricultural pest management be always viewed in its ecological context and that the whole farming system is studied before it is manipulated with external pest control measures, particularly toxic chemicals. The usual approach to pest management is pest-oriented rather than crop-oriented. However, since crops are more important than pests, a more direct approach to pest management is likely to be experimental variation of crop management rather than of pest control possibilities, and emphasis on data on cropping systems characteristics rather than on pest populations.