Globally, farmers lose 30 to 40 percent of their crops due to pests and diseases, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization.
To help reduce these losses, farmers use an approach known as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) where they use the best combination of cultural, biological and chemical measures to keep their crops pest free. When it comes to chemical intervention, there are three main categories:
Herbicides: These kill or stop the growth of unwanted weeds. Worldwide, farmers have to contend with more than 30,000 species of weeds which fight with food crops for space, water and soil nutrients.
Insecticides: These kill insects and mites, such as these Bug Thugs. More than 10,000 species of plant-eating insects and 3,000 species of roundworms can attack farmers’ crops around the world leaving food damaged and inedible.
Fungicides: These destroy or prevent the growth of disease-causing fungi. There are more than 50,000 diseases that get inside crops and poison or kill plant cells.
Without chemical protection, global crop yields would be decimated – here’s a snapshot of what your local market might look like if farmers didn’t have this vital tool.
More Crops per Acre = Sustainability in Action
Doing more with less is an important focus when looking to achieve sustainability. On the farm, this can play out as getting the most you can (the biggest yield) per acre of cropland.
And, while more crop yield means more money for farmers, it also means that less land needs to be converted into cropland, even as our population grows and there are more mouths to feed.
This is a big deal for the environmental health in developing countries like those in Southeast Asia or South America, where more farmland often means less land devoted to forests and other wildlife habitats.
The challenges
Unfortunately, you don’t achieve the biggest yield per acre by simply planting seeds and watching them grow. There are some natural challenges, like pests and crop diseases that can wreak havoc on a field’s productivity. In fact, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization reports that globally, farmers lose 30 to 40 percent of their crops due to pests and diseases.
Not many of us would tolerate eating food that looks like bugs got to it first, so farmers need to protect their crops from more than 10,000 different types of plant-eating insects worldwide. Plus, 3,000 different types of roundworms can attack a plant’s roots. And, if roots are damaged, a plant definitely can’t live up to its full crop-yielding potential.