What is Crop Protection Management

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 : 

  1. Wild sorghum
  2. Chaulai
  3. Bathua
  4. Parthenium

Methods of weed control :

  1. Mechanical methods
  2. Chemical or use of weedicides
  3. 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 :

  1. The root cutting type of insects can be controlled by mixing insecticide in the soil.
  2. The stem and leaf cutting and boring type of insects can be controlled by dusting or spraying the contact insecticides. eg., malathion, lindane.
  3. 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.

  1. Pest infect and cause serious diseases in our crops.
  2. The diseases caused by these pathogens include blast in paddy (rice), rust in wheat, red rot in sugarcane.
  3. 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.