Top-down approaches to pest management, relying on agrochemical inputs that can be scarce, expensive, ecologically toxic, or inaccessible, have repeatedly failed to solve pest problems that affect small farmers in developing countries. Crop Protection Strategies for Subsistence Farmers offers an alternative. Drawing on examples from Latin Am

Drawing on examples from Latin America, Africa and South-East Asia, this book describes crop protection strategies that rely on farmers' knowledge and participation, local resources and alternative low-input methods, as a sensitive approach to develop and implement pest management schemes adjusted to farmers' needs and their socio-economic and agroecological conditions.

What needs to happen if we are going to feed almost 10 billion people by the year 2050 in a sustainable way? Written for first- and second-year university students, this interdisciplinary textbook addresses this challenging question, presenting biological, economic, and sociocultural issues at an introductory level. Presenting and integrating information from many disciplines, this book invites readers to consider the complexity of feeding humanity and increasing food production sustainably. Topics covered include: the development, physiology, and nutrition of plants human nutrition and food safety photosynthesis and energy transformations genetics, molecular biology, and genomics, including the techniques of genetic transformation (gene silencing, gene editing with CRISPR) used in modern crop breeding crop domestication and plant breeding soil ecosystems The applications of modern biotechnology to agriculture extend far beyond GMOs, and include crop improvements that rely on knowledge of the plant’s genomes and its analysis by bioinformatics. Challenging and controversial topics such as the safety of pesticides and GMOs, the increasing demand foranimal products and the stresses this puts on agricultural output, organic farming and foods, and patenting new crop varieties are dealt with in a balanced way, inviting teachers and students to consider all the implications of these serious questions.

The global biodiversity and climate emergencies demand transformative changes to human activities. For example, food production relies on synthetic, industrial and non-sustainable products for managing pests, weeds and diseases of crops. Sustainable farming requires approaches to managing these agricultural constraints that are more environmentally benign and work with rather than against nature. Increasing pressure on synthetic products has reinvigorated efforts to identify alternative pest management options, including plant-based solutions that are environmentally benign and can be tailored to different farmers’ needs, from commercial to small holder and subsistence farming. Botanical insecticides and pesticidal plants can offer a novel, effective and more sustainable alternative to synthetic products for controlling pests, diseases and weeds. This Special Issue reviews and reports the latest developments in plant-based pesticides from identification of bioactive plant chemicals, mechanisms of activity and validation of their use in horticulture and disease vector control. Other work reports applications in rice weeds, combination biopesticides and how chemistry varies spatially and influences the effectiveness of botanicals in different locations. Three reviews assess wider questions around the potential of plant-based pest management to address the global challenges of new, invasive and established crop pests and as-yet underexploited pesticidal plants.

Providing a critical evaluation of the management strategies involved in ecologically-based pest management, this book presents a balanced overview of environmentally safe and ecologically sound approaches. Topics covered include biological control with fungi and viruses, conservation of natural predators, use of botanicals and how effective pest management can help promote food security. In the broader context of agriculture, sustainability and environmental protection, the book provides a multidisciplinary and multinational perspective on integrated pest management useful to researchers in entomology, crop protection, environmental sciences and pest management.