Handbook of Natural Pesticides: Pheromono, Part A, Volume IV PDF

INTRODUCTION

The United States has been blessed with high quality, dependable supplies of low cost food and fiber, but few people are aware of the never-ending battle that makes this possible. There are at present approximately 1,100,000 species of animals, many of them very simple forms, and 350,000 species of plants that currently inhabit the planet earth. In the U.S. there are an estimated 10,000 species of insects and related acarinids which at sometime or other cause significant agricultural damage. Of these, about 200 species are serious pests which require control or suppression every year. World-wide, the total number of insect pests is about ten times greater. The annual losses of crops, livestock, agricultural products, and forests caused by insect pests in the U.S. have been estimated to aggregate about 12% of the total crop production and to represent a value of about $4 billion (1984 dollars). On a world-wide basis, the insect pests annually damage or destroy about 15% of total potential crop production, with a value of more than $35 billion, enough food to feed more than the population of a country like India. Thus, both the losses caused by pests and the costs of their control are considerably high. Insect control is a complex problem for there are more than 200 insects that are or have been subsisting on our main crops, livestock, forests, and aquatic resources. Today, in the U.S., conventional insecticides are needed to control more than half of the insect problems affecting agriculture and public health. If the use of pesticides were to be completely banned, crop losses would soar and food prices would also increase dramatically.

About 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used annually in the U.S. for pest control. The benefits of pesticides have been estimated at about $4/$1 cost. In other words, chemical pest control in U.S. crop production costs an estimated $2.2 billion and yields a gross return of $8.7 billion annually.

Another contributing factor for increased crop production is the effective control of weeds, nematodes, and plant diseases. Crop losses due to unwanted weed species are very high. Of the total losses caused by pests, weeds alone count for about 10% of the agricultural production losses valued at more than $12 billion annually. Farmers spend more than $6.2 billion each year to control weeds. Today, nearly all major crops grown in the U.S. are treated with herbicides. As in insect pest and weed control programs, several chemicals are used in the disease programs. Chemical compounds (e.g., fungicides, bactericides, nematicides, and viracides) that are toxic to pathogens are used for controlling plant diseases. Several million dollars are spent annually by American farmers to control the diseases of major crops such as cotton and soybeans.

Authors: E. David Morgan, N. Bhushan Mandava