What is Crop Protection Management
Field crops are affected by a large number of weeds, pestes disease which cause damage the crops & reduce their productivity.
Weeds :
Weeds are unwanted plants which complete with main crop for nutrition & reduce the growth of crop.
Examples of weeds :
- Wild sorghum
- Chaulai
- Bathua
- Parthenium
Methods of weed control :
- Mechanical methods
- Chemical or use of weedicides
- Biological
Pests :
Harmful creatures for our crop plants are small insects which attack the plants in three ways :
Insect Pest Control :
Based on the mode of attack, the insect pests are of following three types :
Chewing Insects :
They cut and chew root, stem and leaves of the plants with the help of their chewing type of mouth parts. e.g., grass hoppers, locusts, caterpillars, grubs etc.
Sucking Insects :
They suck the cell sap from different parts of the plants with the help of piercing and sucking mouth parts. eg. Aphids, leaf hoppers, plant bugs, etc.
Borer Insects :
They bore and enter different plant parts, and feed on the plant tissues eg. Sugarcane borer, pod borers, cotton ball weevil, grain weevils, etc.
Methods of Insect Pest Control :
- The root cutting type of insects can be controlled by mixing insecticide in the soil.
- The stem and leaf cutting and boring type of insects can be controlled by dusting or spraying the contact insecticides. eg., malathion, lindane.
- The sap sucking insects can be controlled by spraying systemic insecticides.
Disease Control
A wide variety of plant pathogens such as bacteria, viruses and fungi, exist in our environment.
- Pest infect and cause serious diseases in our crops.
- The diseases caused by these pathogens include blast in paddy (rice), rust in wheat, red rot in sugarcane.
- Based on the mode of transmission, plant diseases are of following four types –
Seed Borne Diseases :
The diseases which spread through seeds are called seed borne diseases, e.g., loose smut of wheat, leaf spot of rice.
Soil Borne Diseases :
The soil borne diseases mostly affect roots and stems of crop plants, e.g., smut of bajra, tikka disease of groundnut.
Air Borne Diseases :
The air diseases attack all aerial parts of the plants like leaves, flowers and fruits. e.g., rust of wheat, blast of rice.
Water Borne Diseases :
The diseases which are transmitted through water are termed as water borne diseases. e.g., bacterial blight of rice.