APPLICATION OF PESTICIDES TO CROPS
by Graham A Matthews (Imperial College)
Professor Graham A Matthews began his career as a cotton entomologist in Africa working on control of pests of cotton. His experience with insecticide application for small scale farmers as well as large estates involved studies with knapsack, tractor and aerial spraying equipment. His work in Africa led to the development of hand-held spinning disc sprayers and studies on electrostatic spraying. Since 1972, Professor Matthews has been in charge of the International Pesticide Application Research Centre (IPARC) at the Biology Department of Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. He has been an active participant with the British Crop Protection Council's Chemical Application Working Group and with international organisations, including FAO and WHO in developing improved application technology.
Pesticides continue to provide an important tool in integrated pest management (IPM) programmes. Hitherto IPM programmes have had a strong bias towards insect control, but farmers need to control weeds, plant pathogens and other pest problems.
This book follows the author's successful “pesticide application methods” by relating the equipment needs to the overall pest control requirement of major crops. It outlines the pest problems against which farmers are using pesticides and focusses on the details of the application techniques they need to optimise pesticide use.
Much attention is now being given to genetically modified crops, but these do not necessarily avoid the use of pesticides. Some are engineered to be resistant to certain herbicides, so the use of these herbicides will still require careful application in order to minimise environmental side effects. Similarly, crops engineered for resistance to certain insect pest species may remain susceptible to other pests, thus emphasising the need for crop monitoring and careful use of any chemicals to avoid disrupting biological control.
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