Pest species can be devastating to a farming operation and are collectively responsible for billions of dollars in agricultural losses each year. For many years, farmers have been left with no choice but to resort to extreme measures to control the spread of damaging pests, such as the use of pesticides. Unfortunately, these chemicals can have unintended side effects and a damaging environmental impact.
Fortunately, modern farming innovations have allowed farmers to control pest populations in a much safer and healthier way. Below, we’ll look at a few of the ways pest management in agriculture has evolved over the years and how modern farms are reducing their dependence on pesticides to ensure safer and healthier crops:
What Risks Do Crops Face?
In agricultural terms, “pests” can refer to any number of biological threats that face crops during the growing and harvesting processes. Any organism that negatively impacts the health of a crop can correctly be termed a pest, although the word is most frequently associated with harmful insect species. Nevertheless, it can also refer to unwanted plant species (commonly called weeds), as well as fungi, bacteria, and even vertebrates, such as rats, mice, lizards, toads, or some bird species.
Pests can damage crops in any number of ways. For example, weeds may block sunlight and compete for resources. Bacteria may cause disease, and fungi may cause crops to rot and decay as they grow. Insect pests typically harm crop plants by either consuming or nesting in them. Often, they do both. They can cause harm to roots, leaves, bulbs, or fruit. Vertebrate pests can do the same.
The Problem with Pesticides
Traditional pest management techniques often involve the copious use of toxic chemical pesticides. The type of chemical used will depend on the pest species. Unwanted plant species are often controlled using a compound called glyphosate, while organophosphates are widely used to eliminate harmful insects. These chemicals have been authorized for use as pesticides because they are widely believed to be safe for this application. However, authorities disagree on exactly how safe they are. One investigative body determined that glyphosate may have carcinogenic effects on humans.
While most modern pesticides have indeed been selected for use based on their relative safety, the reality remains that their excessive presence in the environment can have a detrimental effect on local wildlife. The pervasive and consistent use of agricultural chemicals can lead to the bioaccumulation of those same chemicals in local food webs, creating undue harm and threatening human populations.
This occurs when the indiscriminate use of pesticides impacts beneficial insects as well as harmful ones, damaging the local ecosystem and forcing farmers to use more fertilizers and other chemicals. These chemicals are then carried into the environment as runoff, leading them to do further damage to local insect populations and ultimately to end up (through the natural processes of the food web) in the bodies of larger organisms, including humans.
Integrated Pest Management
The consequences of excessive farming chemicals in the environment can be far-reaching, and in actuality, pesticides alone are not the most efficient method for controlling pest populations on the farm. Modern innovations have led to techniques that can reduce the impact of pests while minimizing the use of chemicals. This helps protect local ecosystems while also saving farms money in the long term.
There is no single method for reducing the dependency of modern farms on pesticides. Instead, multiple methods can be combined to create a more efficient and sustainable agricultural process. Taken together, the techniques used are referred to as integrated pest management (IPM), a data-based, multi-pronged system for identifying pest populations, assessing threat levels, and mitigating damage through the careful application of knowledge accumulated during the farming process.
Precision Technology
A major reason why pesticides have historically been used in excess on farms is the amount of guesswork involved in the agricultural process. In the past, farmers simply didn’t alter their methods based on which pests were present, in what quantities, or when they were most active. As a result, there was no nuance to the application of chemical pesticides. Amounts were rarely adjusted based on important factors. However, modern precision farming technology has allowed farmers to be a great deal more careful about their approach to pest management.
Farmers who implement IPM techniques utilize custom software to track and monitor the presence of known pest populations. This software can determine when these species are likely to be most active, their reproduction cycles, and when they may be dormant. This allows farmers to be far more discerning in their use of pesticides. Precision farming makes it possible to identify the key moments when pesticides will be the most effective, vastly reducing the need for their use.
Biological Controls
IPM techniques also weave other pest control techniques into farmers’ arsenals, helping to further reduce their dependence on agricultural pesticides. Any technique that is designed to mitigate the presence of harmful species can be included in this process, such as placing physical barriers to block animals from entering the areas where certain crops may be growing.
IPM also includes the use of biological methods of pest control, many of which take advantage of naturally occurring environmental processes. One way that farmers can control pests biologically is by encouraging the presence of their predators. For example, ladybugs famously consume pest insects like aphids, so any farming technique that encourages the presence of ladybugs could be considered to be a method of IPM.
Planting cover crops that serve as habitats for the birds and other wildlife that eat pests can have a significant benefit as well. Farmers can also naturally disrupt pest populations through the practice of crop rotation. Periodically changing the type of crop grown in an area prevents pest species from becoming well-established across multiple generations.
By implementing these and other modern pest management techniques on your farm, you can promote healthier and more productive crops while also reducing your environmental impact. Farming alliances like the Washington State Potato Commission have helped to make integrated pest management part of their overall strategy to improve the sustainability of their farming efforts. By doing the same, you will be able to ensure a safe and productive future for all farms, large and small.
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