Crop Plants: Pest Control
Using pest control to increase crop yields
- Pests such as insects and other animals can damage crops by eating them
- Weeds can outcompete crop plants for space, water and soil nutrients
- Fungi can infect crop plants and spread disease which can affect growth and yield
- All of these can be controlled by using pesticides (chemical control) or by introducing other species (biological control)
Pesticides
- Insecticides kill insect pests
- Herbicides kill plant pests
- Fungicides kill fungal pests
Advantages and Disadvantages of Pesticides Table
Biological control
- Can happen naturally – for example, ladybirds eat aphids
- Usually, a species is introduced specifically to prey on the pest species – for example, parasitic wasps can control whitefly in glasshouse tomato crops
- As they are based on a predator-prey cycle, they do not completely remove a pest, but keep it at lower levels
Advantages and Disadvantages of Biological Control Table
