scholarly journals Plant-Derived Pesticides as an Alternative to Pest Management and Sustainable Agricultural Production: Prospects, Applications and Challenges

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (16) ◽  
pp. 4835
Author(s):  
Augusto Lopes Souto ◽  
Muriel Sylvestre ◽  
Elisabeth Dantas Tölke ◽  
Josean Fechine Tavares ◽  
José Maria Barbosa-Filho ◽  
...  

Pests and diseases are responsible for most of the losses related to agricultural crops, either in the field or in storage. Moreover, due to indiscriminate use of synthetic pesticides over the years, several issues have come along, such as pest resistance and contamination of important planet sources, such as water, air and soil. Therefore, in order to improve efficiency of crop production and reduce food crisis in a sustainable manner, while preserving consumer’s health, plant-derived pesticides may be a green alternative to synthetic ones. They are cheap, biodegradable, ecofriendly and act by several mechanisms of action in a more specific way, suggesting that they are less of a hazard to humans and the environment. Natural plant products with bioactivity toward insects include several classes of molecules, for example: terpenes, flavonoids, alkaloids, polyphenols, cyanogenic glucosides, quinones, amides, aldehydes, thiophenes, amino acids, saccharides and polyketides (which is not an exhaustive list of insecticidal substances). In general, those compounds have important ecological activities in nature, such as: antifeedant, attractant, nematicide, fungicide, repellent, insecticide, insect growth regulator and allelopathic agents, acting as a promising source for novel pest control agents or biopesticides. However, several factors appear to limit their commercialization. In this critical review, a compilation of plant-derived metabolites, along with their corresponding toxicology and mechanisms of action, will be approached, as well as the different strategies developed in order to meet the required commercial standards through more efficient methods.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isha Sharma ◽  
M.K. Sekhon

Output is determined by the efficiency with which available technologies are used i.e. with the improvement in technical efficiency. There are extensive numbers of studies focusing on efficiency as a means of fostering agriculture production. The article reviews the literature devoted to technical efficiency analysis in various countries and its applications to agricultural production. The studies reviewed focused particularly on rice and wheat making them the most studied agricultural product by researchers. The review of efficiency analysis shows that agricultural output can be increased without additional inputs with given existing technology. Technical efficiency of agricultural crops like wheat, paddy, cotton etc grown in different countries of the world like India, Pakistan, Ethopia, Srilanka were reviewed and it was found that except for farm size, the variables like farmer education and experience, contacts with extension personnel and access to credit, tend to have a positive and statistically significant impact on technical efficiency.


Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1746
Author(s):  
Alejandro Moreno-Gavíra ◽  
Victoria Huertas ◽  
Fernando Diánez ◽  
Brenda Sánchez-Montesinos ◽  
Mila Santos

Incorporating beneficial microorganisms in crop production is the most promising strategy for maintaining agricultural productivity and reducing the use of inorganic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Numerous microorganisms have been described in the literature as biological control agents for pests and diseases, although some have not yet been commercialised due to their lack of viability or efficacy in different crops. Paecilomyces is a cosmopolitan fungus that is mainly known for its nematophagous capacity, but it has also been reported as an insect parasite and biological control agent of several fungi and phytopathogenic bacteria through different mechanisms of action. In addition, species of this genus have recently been described as biostimulants of plant growth and crop yield. This review includes all the information on the genus Paecilomyces as a biological control agent for pests and diseases. Its growth rate and high spore production rate in numerous substrates ensures the production of viable, affordable, and efficient commercial formulations for agricultural use.


2020 ◽  
Vol 193 ◽  
pp. 01046
Author(s):  
Tatiana E. Marinchenko

The introduction of biological agents to protect and control, as well as stimulate the development of agricultural crops, is one of the areas of increasing the efficiency and profitability of production, reducing the environmental burden and increasing the competitiveness of producers, which lies in the concept of a green economy, as well as for the sustainable development of agriculture. Domestic biotechnological developments for crop production are considered, which increase production efficiency and reduce the environmental burden.


Author(s):  
V.A. Shevchenko ◽  

The non-black earth zone of Russia is a zone of guaranteed harvest of major agricultural crops. However, at present, the potential of the reclaimed lands of the Non-Black Earth Region remains largely unrealized. In world agricultural practice, land reclamation combined with the use of modern technical means is an important factor in the development of agriculture, a condition for a consistently high level of agricultural production. Therefore, in all countries, reclaimed lands are given a special status, and the necessary amount of reclamation fund of agricultural lands is created.


Climate ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Pitshu Mulomba Mukadi ◽  
Concepción González-García

Time series of mean monthly temperature and total monthly precipitation are two of the climatic variables most easily obtained from weather station records. There are many studies analyzing historical series of these variables, particularly in the Spanish territory. In this study, the series of these two variables in 47 stations of the provincial capitals of mainland Spain were analyzed. The series cover time periods from the 1940s to 2013; the studies reviewed in mainland Spain go up to 2008. ARIMA models were used to represent their variation. In the preliminary phase of description and identification of the model, a study to detect possible trends in the series was carried out in an isolated manner. Significant trends were found in 15 of the temperature series, and there were trends in precipitation in only five of them. The results obtained for the trends are discussed with reference to those of other, more detailed studies in the different regions, confirming whether the same trend was maintained over time. With the ARIMA models obtained, 12-month predictions were made by measuring errors with the observed data. More than 50% of the series of both were modeled. Predictions with these models could be useful in different aspects of seasonal job planning, such as wildfires, pests and diseases, and agricultural crops.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynette Morgan

Abstract Crop production in many regions has been reliant on irrigation for almost as long as man has been cultivating plant life. For 6000 years, irrigation has ranked among the most powerful tools of human advancement (Postel, 1999), and by the start of the 21st century no less than 75% of the world's fresh water was in use for agricultural production (Levy and Coleman, 2014). In 2012, twenty percent of total cultivated land was under irrigation, contributing forty percent of the total food production worldwide, this represented 275 million hectares under actual irrigation with a total of 324 million hectares equipped for irrigation (FAO, 2016). Irrigation, which can be defined as 'the artificial application of water to land, soil or other growing medium for the purposes of crop growth', has become a global issue in more recent times as the increasing demand for fresh water has seen problems develop with water scarcity, quality issues and conflict over usage.


Agriculture ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vitus Ikechukwu Obi ◽  
Juan José Barriuso ◽  
Yolanda Gogorcena

The peach is one of the most important global tree crops within the economically important Rosaceae family. The crop is threatened by numerous pests and diseases, especially fungal pathogens, in the field, in transit, and in the store. More than 50% of the global post-harvest loss has been ascribed to brown rot disease, especially in peach late-ripening varieties. In recent years, the disease has been so manifest in the orchards that some stone fruits were abandoned before harvest. In Spain, particularly, the disease has been associated with well over 60% of fruit loss after harvest. The most common management options available for the control of this disease involve agronomical, chemical, biological, and physical approaches. However, the effects of biochemical fungicides (biological and conventional fungicides), on the environment, human health, and strain fungicide resistance, tend to revise these control strategies. This review aims to comprehensively compile the information currently available on the species of the fungus Monilinia, which causes brown rot in peach, and the available options to control the disease. The breeding for brown rot-resistant varieties remains an ideal management option for brown rot disease control, considering the uniqueness of its sustainability in the chain of crop production.


TEME ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 1421
Author(s):  
Зоран Симоновић

The paper discusses Varro’s texts about agriculture included in the Byzantine encyclopedia on agriculture by the redactor. The paper gives a historical overview of the use of Varro’s texts from the end of the first century BC to the middle of the tenth century. The texts refer to the following topics: when and in what month should certain agricultural crops be grown, how can the land be cultivated, instructions for the production of grapes, wine, olives and artichokes, feathered fowls and cattle breeding and other animals. Based on centuries of using Varro’s texts on agriculture, there is an impression that these texts had great importance for the development of agricultural production not only in Rome but also the Byzantine Empire.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 36-47
Author(s):  
D. S. Ternovsky ◽  
V. Ya. Uzun

The article presents the results of a study aimed at proving the existence of systematic error in traditional calculations of long-term growth rates of agricultural production based on chain indices of agricultural production. According to the authors, the article also introduces a more accurate assessment of its dynamics with the account to the structure of the relationship between prices and the volume of agricultural production. The paper describes a theoretical model that is a methodological basis for the study and explains the discrepancy in assessing the dynamics of agricultural production using chain indices and indexes at constant prices. It allows establishing differences in the ratios of the Laspeyres, Paasche, and Lowe indices for crop and livestock production, due to factors in the formation of demand and the complex structure of the relationship between the price level and the volume of production. The adequacy of the constructed theoretical model is proved based on aggregated data that eliminated the influence of incompleteness of the initial information. As a result, it was established that livestock production is characterized by time-distributed changes in prices and quantity of products, which makes it possible to assess its dynamics using both chain indices and symmetric indices. It is proved that the dynamics of crop production cannot be adequately described using chain indices, since a positive correlation of prices of the previous period and production volumes of the current period causes an overstatement of the index in comparable prices of the previous year. Based on calculations within the proposed aggregated model, it is proved that the use of constant prices as the Lowe index weights, updated every five years, is an acceptable approximation of the Fisher symmetric index. Application of the indicated methodology for calculating the index to the data on Russian agricultural production by main types of products in 1990-2018 allowed to establish an overstatement of dynamics by 11.9%. The main difference falls on crop production (+ 19.6%), while for livestock - the differences are insignificant (-0.7%).


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-126
Author(s):  
Galina G. Parkhomenko ◽  
Igor V. Bozhko ◽  
Sergey I. Kambulov ◽  
Viktor I. Pakhomov

Introduction. One of the areas of agricultural production is crop production. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account all available possibilities of reducing the energy consumption and labor required for tillage operations that can be achieved by using energy efficient tillage tools. Materials and Methods. In the course of the research, an agrotechnical and energy assessment of the technological process of soil cultivation performed by tillage tools was carried out. The agrotechnical assessment includes identifying the indicators of unevenness of the tillage tool travel depth, soil pulverization, ridging, and the content of erosion threatening particles. As an energy assessment, the indicator of draught created by a tillage tool was taken. The researches were carried out for various configurations of the chisel cultivators with flat and curved hoes, and elements made of polymer. Results. The data of agricultural assessment and draught of chisel cultivators were obtained for various agricultural backgrounds: winter wheat stubble with preliminary disking in one track, winter barley stubble with preliminary disking in one track, and autumn fallow on the background. Discussion and Conclusion. According to the results of the research, it was found that, in terms of quality indicators, the tillage tools meet the agrotechnical requirements for a given processing depth of 25–35 cm. The operation of the chisel equipped with a curved hoe is characterized by the highest presence of clods up to 5 cm (91–96%). The ridge height was 6.8–8.0 cm for all tillage tools. It has been established that the tillage tools are advisable to be uses for anti-erosion soil cultivation. In terms of preserving plant and crop residues, a chisel with a curved hoe providing their content by 9.5–28.6% more than with a polymer of 13.2–14.3%. The chisel with polymer has the smallest draught of 7.6 kN, which is 18.28% lower in comparison with tillage tools equipped with a flat hoe.


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