Pest management practices involve operations that control pest infestation on the farm. Pest control utilises physical, chemical, biological, and cultural management practices. Physical control refers to mechanical or hand controls where the pests are captured, attacked, or destroyed.
Chemical control methods involve the use of chemicals and pesticides. However, it has been observed that chemical pest control practices do not promote sustainability and biodiversity. In some cases, their use completely wipes out pests that are critical for enhancing soil health.
Biological control is a form of ecologically based pest management. It uses an organism (a beneficial organism to the plants or crops) to control another that destroys the crop while they are termed natural enemies usually in a predator-prey relationship. It uses living organisms to reduce the impact of pest infestation so that the pests are less damaging than they would be. However, pests are not completely eradicated. An example includes beneficial organisms like parasitic wasps and predatory mites which can be introduced into crops to prey on harmful pests like aphids, spider mites, whiteflies, or caterpillars.
Cultural control practices entail changing the environment for the pests to thrive through the use of resistant varieties, mulching, hand weeding and hoeing, pruning, trapping, and physical barriers such as row covers and sticky bands.
Ecological pest management (EPM) however focuses on preventive rather than reactive procedures for pest management. This management practice encourages natural pest control services and reduces reliance on pesticides while encouraging biodiversity and creating habitat for natural enemies. These practices promote sustainability while maintaining environmentally healthy activities or operations on the farm. EPM engages many elements of integrated pest management (IPM) operations essentially upholding the natural stability of the agroecosystem and suppressing pest outbreaks at the very beginning when the pest population density is marginal. Examples of ecological pest management practices include crop rotation, the introduction of beneficial organisms that are predators of pests, integrated pest management (IPM), and soil health practices like planting cover crops.
The impact of information technology in agriculture in general has become quite evident, penetrating every fibre of the ecosystem. Technologies are significantly playing critical roles in providing effective and efficient ecological pest management practices. Technologies like farm management optimisation software are being utilised for ecological pest management operations.
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Illustration of Ecological Pest Management
Source: Zihua Zhao
Roles of Technology in Ecological Pest Management
Some of the roles technology plays in ecological pest management are highlighted below:
1. Early Warning Signs
Traditional pest control methods often depend on manual inspection and scouting. In many cases, early detection is difficult to attain, especially on a large farm, and in no time the threshold level of the pests is passed and infestation becomes inevitable. Using satellite, remote sensing, and spatial planning, technologies that capture the entire farm size at a glance give an accurate overview early enough.
2. Large Scale Monitoring
Manual pest management operations for large-scale farming enterprises are usually labour-intensive and time-consuming. As a general rule, it takes about ten minutes to scout 1 hectare of maize crop by walking, according to Corson Maize. However, once a problem is identified it will take time to properly assess it before continuing which might extend the duration for scouting. To collapse the time, you may require additional labour for tens of hectares.
With the use of tech-integrated operation, inspection and scouting can be done within minutes. Unlike traditional methods that may take place weekly or bi-weekly at best, tech-integrated operation is done daily and covers the entire farm field not limited to areas physically scouted for manual, traditional methods.
3. Identification of Areas with Increased Pest Infestation
Tech-enabled pest management practice identifies hot spot areas (areas with increased pest infestation) easily and precisely unlike the traditional methods that are largely based on probability due to areas likely skipped during physical pests’ appraisal.
4. Promotes Integrated Pest Management
Tech-integrated operations contribute effectively to integrated pest management practices. For example, satellite technology combines its operations with weather data, soil analysis, and historical pest data that can help promote a comprehensive integrated pest management plan and decision-making.
5. Develop Precise Methods to Manage Pests
Precision agriculture technology develops accurate frameworks that are location or coordinate-specific and promotes the accuracy of the identified risk assessments.
6. Enhances Proactive Decision Making
Ecological Pest Management is primarily hinged on the ability to detect pests early to keep them at a minimal rate so they don’t develop a population that will become detrimental to the crops, farm, and the environment. With technology-enabled ecological pest management operations, immediate and precise observation, early detection, full capture, and real-time results promote proactive decision-making on the part of the principal to take steps to keep the farm healthy.
Principles of Remote Sensing
Source: Geolearn.in
Importance of Tech-Integrated Ecological Pest Management
The importance of ecological pest management practices that are also tech-integrated goes beyond pest management alone but also provides overarching goals such as:
- Grow healthy crops and production systems that can withstand, outgrow or repel pest attacks.
- Ultimately design an agro ecological farming production system that attracts beneficial predators that are natural enemies to the pests.
- Develop a safe environment that promotes biodiversity and sustainability. This translates into healthy living and improved livelihoods.
- Ultimately design a farm habitat that will delay, suppress, or repel pest invasions.
Benefits of Using Technology to Manage Pests on Farm
Maintaining a healthy agroecosystem that minimises the outbreak of pests has tremendous benefits to the farm, its operation, and sustainability. Some of the benefits include:
- Promote accurate on-farm pest scouting exercises compared to manual or mechanical means. It is important to keep the threshold level of pests at a minimum to disallow infestation.
- Tech-integrated EPM like Satellite technologies, for example, can help in detecting pests on the field in real-time and addressing any form of issues as soon as required.
- Production and operations costs are considerably reduced to promote profitability while ensuring precise, customised interventions are administered avoiding wastage and unnecessary application of any sort.
- Reduce the risk of crop failure because pests that will naturally attack planted crops are being naturally reduced to a safe level in due course.
- Environmental disruptions and threats to human health are minimised. This is fostered by healthy biodiversity and soil health with the right balance of soil, water, and nutrients that incubates the growth of crops. This balance is precise, ensured, and maintained by tech-enabled intervention.
- The ability of the pests to develop resistance or adapt to control practices is slowed.
 Challenges of Tech-Integrated Pest Management
Some of the identified challenges include:
- Limited resources especially in developing economies where many smallholder farmers lack access to effective pest management technologies and tools and cannot adopt the practice.
- Weak extension services also contribute to the required exposure and awareness of ecological pest management practices especially in developing countries while farmers are left with no other option than to rely on the use of pesticides solely.
- Insufficient research and development in nature-based solutions, including the identification and optimization of beneficial organisms also threatens the adoption of these practices.
Conclusion
Ecological pest management practices are enhanced by technology to primarily promote accuracy and timely delivery for efficient and effective operations. Accuracy and time are the key foundation for managing pests ecologically. It is often advised to use technology along with other management practices for an almost perfect ecological pest control. Sustainable agriculture will be further endorsed with the use of technology in EPM while serving as part of the overall picture of Integrated pest management.
