Here’s how New Zealand is helping spread smart pest management
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Lucia Ramos Romero12:54, Sep 25 2020
OPINION: The world’s population is projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, which means an extra two billion mouths to feed.
The limited resources we have on the planet need to be utilised sustainably to maximise the quality and quantity of food.
To achieve this, smart integrated disease and pest management (IDPM) will be key because crop disease epidemics can severely disrupt food supply.
At the other end of the spectrum, some growers may feel economic pressure to switch to organic practices in order to meet consumer demand, even though biological and cultural control methods alone are sometimes insufficient in controlling pests and diseases.
Organic produce has become increasingly popular in recent years, and is often perceived as a more “sustainable” alternative. The paradox here is that some organic orchards also use copper-based fungicides, despite copper potentially having a lasting impact on soil.
Growing conditions are never static. Given optimal conditions, diseases can spread like wildfire in a very short period of time, even in areas that normally produce healthy crops. In conditions favourable for a particular fungus, fungicides are important tools for the management of epidemics.
In Europe, for example, yellow rust (Puccinia striiformis) has expanded further across the continent in recent years and the application of fungicides has avoided major yield losses in wheat. Potato late blight (Phytophthora infestans), which was responsible for the Irish potato famine of the 19th century, still presents problems for potato growers worldwide. Severe outbreaks in some areas of Germany, caused by humid weather, have hit organic farmers especially hard in recent years.
Another example is coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix), which has caused annual yield losses of 30 per cent or more in some regions of Latin America over the last decade. This led to the use of integrated management strategies, including fungicide spraying based on disease monitoring, the introduction of new, resistant varieties and better nutrition of the crop.
IDPM consists of three components: biological (controlling diseases and pests using other living organisms), cultural (crop rotation, appropriate varieties, removing infected material) and chemical (the use of pesticides following pest and disease monitoring). IDPM guides growers to find a balance between these different components, including the safe and responsible use of chemical products when needed.
Plant & Food Research, with the support of the New Zealand Aid Programme, has been working with agronomists and growers in countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam to incorporate IDPM practices into their production systems.
This has already seen promising results in combating local fruit and vegetable diseases by improving orchard design and hygiene, and optimising spray programmes. If smart IDPM systems are further established in these countries, growers will be able to produce crops more efficiently and responsibly.
This will also reduce exposure to health risks associated with the misapplication of chemical products, as well as sparing beneficial organisms already present in orchards that act as a biological control.
Although New Zealand growers already follow integrated management practices, scientists are continuously investigating how these can be adapted to changing environmental conditions and agricultural production processes. For example, a range of on-orchard factors can impact avocado fruit quality. At Plant & Food Research, we are currently working with the avocado industry to better understand fruit quality and help growers improve fruit quality outcomes from their orchards.
Some recommendations from previous research on insect pests have already been successfully implemented, and the New Zealand avocado industry has a well-recognised integrated pest management strategy.
I believe science that develops smart IDPM practices today will help to resolve a potential food crisis tomorrow. IDPM has the potential to maximise food productivity and quality worldwide, while maintaining a sustainable equilibrium between disease and pest management, environmental conservation, the needs of growers, and consumer benefits.
Lucia Ramos Romero is a scientist in epidemiology and disease management at Plant & Food Research. She works with fruit growers in New Zealand as well as with overseas growers in a project funded by the New Zealand Aid Programme.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.414.0_en.html#goog_1274236058PauseMuteCurrent
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