Crop and Pasture Protection
Summary
Crop and pasture protection encompasses the integrated strategies and innovations required to safeguard both arable and forage systems from biotic threats. These include insect herbivores, plant pathogens and competing weeds that undermine productivity and quality, with impacts on global food security, livestock nutrition and rural livelihoods. Approaches range from preventive cultural practices—such as crop rotations, intercropping, canopy management and soil‐health restoration—to biological control by predators, parasitoids and microbial antagonists, alongside judicious use of chemical and genetic tools. Host‐plant resistance and marker‐assisted breeding have delivered varieties with durable tolerance to pests and diseases, while precision‐agriculture technologies enable site‐specific applications that reduce non‐target effects. Conservation biological control leverages habitat manipulation to sustain natural‐enemy populations, and biopesticides derived from entomopathogens and plant extracts offer environmentally benign alternatives. As production systems intensify to meet growing demand, balancing economic efficiency with ecological stewardship has become paramount. Successful protection regimes integrate multiple tactics to disrupt pest life cycles, maintain ecosystem services and mitigate the evolution of resistance, ensuring resilient crop and pasture systems under changing climatic and market conditions.
Research from Nature Portfolio
Recent quantification of spittlebug outbreaks in tropical palisade grass revealed herbage yield losses exceeding 60 % and up to 75 % reductions in beef productivity under severe infestations. Detailed analyses identified declines in crude protein, fibre digestibility and key minerals, emphasising the economic and nutritional consequences of sap‐sucking pests in pasture‐based systems.
In perennial tree cropping, co‐inoculation experiments have shown that interspecific competition between Colletotrichum godetiae and C. nymphaeae can determine regional dominance of olive anthracnose pathogens. C. godetiae displaces C. nymphaeae even at low initial frequencies and exhibits greater copper tolerance, informing risk assessments and guiding tailored management strategies.
Crop and Pasture Protection publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in crop and pasture protection across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Biological control: Use of natural enemies (predators, parasitoids or pathogens) to suppress pest populations.
Integrated pest management (IPM): Coordinated approach combining biological, cultural, physical and chemical tools to keep pests below economic thresholds in an ecologically sound manner.
Quantitative trait locus (QTL): Genomic region associated with variation in a continuously distributed trait such as disease resistance.
Pathotype: Subgroup of a pathogen species defined by its virulence on specific host genotypes.
Conservation biological control: Enhancement of resident natural enemies through habitat management and reduced pesticide use.
Marker‐assisted selection (MAS): Use of DNA markers linked to desirable alleles to accelerate breeding for traits like pest or disease resistance.
References
- Intercropped Plants Provide a Reservoir of Predatory Mites in Coffee Crop. Agriculture (2023).
- Spittlebug damage on tropical grass and its impact in pasture-based beef production systems. Scientific Reports (2020).
- Study of the competition between Colletotrichum godetiae and C. nymphaeae, two pathogenic species in olive. Scientific Reports (2023).
- Fine mapping of a novel QTL DM9.1 conferring downy mildew resistance in melon. Frontiers in Plant Science (2023).
- Assessment of fungicide product applications and program approaches for control of downy mildew on pickling cucumber in North Carolina. Crop Protection (2021).
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