Crop Protection and Environment: Sustainable Control Measures of Pests and Diseases

Abstract

The second Sustainable Development Goals determines to achieve zero starvation, accomplish food security and attain better-quality nutrition and encourage eco-friendly agriculture. The sustainability can be achieved by maintaining environments, improving capability for adjustment to climate change, unpredictable weather, and other natural catastrophes and enhancing land and soil quality progressively. The challenge in keeping high yield crops is pests and diseases attack. Control measures to suppress pests and diseases should also keep the ecosystems in balance. Pesticides that heavily used for plant protection besides their effectiveness in controlling pests and diseases also possess risks to non-target organisms. To diminish the harmful effect of pesticides, innovative methods to cut the amount of active ingredients applied have established, including developing new formulation of existing compounds, enhancing the bioactivity of active ingredients. In addition, there are also new development in plant protection products derived from natural ingredients, new mode of action and biochemical targets. Various cultural methods are considered eco-friendly measures, including habitat and cropping management, sanitation and fallowing. Furthermore, application of biocontrol agents and cultivation of resistant/tolerant crop varieties should be incorporate into plant protection as part of sustainable control methods of pests and diseases.