Sustainable Crop Protection Strategies, Vols. 1 and 2

Contents:  A. Foreword. B. Preface. Vol. I. 1. Maintenance of Diversity in Sugarcane Crop System: A Pest Management Perspective/J. Srikanth. 2. Evolution of National Plant Quarantine System in India in Tune with International Phytosanitary Regime/B. Sarath Babu, K.S. Varaprasad, Kavita Gupta and R.K. Khetarpal. 3. Disease Resistance in Rice: Progress and Perspectives/Ram Singh, S. Sunder, C.S. Reddy and D.S. Dodan.  4. Geo-spatial Technologies in Pest Management/A.K. Kanojia. 5. Characterization, Diagnostics and Management of Viruses Infecting Onion in India/Meenakshi Arya and V.K. Baranwal. 6. Pheromone Based Strategy for the Management of Red Palm Weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) in Palm Agro-ecosystems/J.R. Faleiro. 7. Phytophagous Mites of Economic Plants of India/R.N. Singh and J. Singh. 8. Simulation Modelling and Climate Change in Relation to Pest Management/Subhash Chander. 9. Information Technology in Integrated Pest Management/Niranjan Singh and H.R. Sardana. 10. Fruit Flies and their Management/H.R. Sardana. 11. Integrated Pests and Diseases of Temperate Fruit Crops and their Management/Farooq A. Zaki, Qazi Nissar Ahmad, M.A. Mantoo and Munazah Yaqoob. 12. Sustainable Management of Insect Pests of Spice Crops/S. Devasahayam. 13. Weed Management in Field Crops: Traditional to Modern Approaches/T.K. Das. 14. Pest Forecasting for Integrated Pest Management/ D.K. Das and H.R. Sardana. 15. Integrated Management of Diseases of Important Spice Crops/R. Suseela Bhai and Santhosh J. Eapen. 16. Pea Rust (Uromyces fabae) and its Inheritance of Resistance/Ramesh Chand, Chanda Kushwaha and Anil Kumar Singh. 17. Management of Fungal and Bacterial Diseases of Tomato/M.K. Naik, G. Ramegowda, S. Sudha and Y.S. Amaresh. 18. Integrated Pest Management in Rice: A Bio-Intensive Approach/Gururaj Katti, A.P. Padmakumari, Ch. Padmavathi and Chitra Shanker. 19. Integrated Pest Management in Groundnut/V. Nandagopal, S. Desai and T.V. Prasad.

Vol. II. 20. Integrated Pest Management in Short Duration Pigeonpea/Nitin Joshi, M.K. Pandey, C.P. Srivastava and Mukesh Sehgal.  21. Pest Management in Changing Cotton Scenario/Rishi Kumar, Dilip Monga, S. L. Jat and K. C. Kumhar. 22. Rodent Pest Management in Arid Land Farming System/R.S. Tripatlii. 23. Pheromones in Indian Agriculture and Future Scope/V. Nandagopal. 24. Application of Fungicides in Improving Agriculture Production/R.D. Rawal and C. Chandershekhar. 25. Approaches for Integrated Disease Management of Onion and Garlic/R.K. Mishra and R.P. Gupta. 26. Biocontrol Strategies for the Management of Vegetable Pests using Entomopathogenic Fungi/T. Jiji, A. Naseema and R. Praveena. 27. Diseases and Pest Management of Pomegranate in the Semi Arid Region of the Western India/B.C. Bagle, H.K. Joshi, and T.A. More. 28. Fungal Biocontrol of Plant-Parasitic Nematodes/D. Prasad. 29. Indigenous Knowledge to Manage Insect Pests and Diseases of Cotton Based Cropping Systems in India/A.K. Kanojia and Sumitra Arora. 30. Predators and Parasitoids in Pest Management/S.K. Jalali. 31. Recent Advances in Management of Insect Pests of Vegetables Crops/T.M. Shivalingaswamy, S. Satpathy and A.B. Rai. 32. Red Rot Menace and its Sustainable Management in Sugarcane/Narendra Singh. 33. Status and Prospects of IPM in Rapeseed-Mustard/Y.P. Singh. 34. Termite\'s Management with Special Reference to Sugarcane/S.K. Pandey. 35. Changing Scenario of Pests and their Management in Sesame/D.B. Ahuja and T.S. Rajpurohit. 36. Amino Acid Analysis for Biotechnological Crop Improvement and Allied Applications/H.C. Meher and V.T. Gajbhiye. 37. An Existing and Futuristic Studies of Neem in 21st Century/Ashutosh Isaiah and Manoj S. Paul. 38. Pests of Irrigated Oil Palm and their Management/P.Kalidas. C. Index

Over exploitation of natural resources and excessive chemicalisation of agriculture in the past few decades, have led to poor sustainability of farm production. Over dependency and indiscriminate use of agricultural chemicals have resulted in the problems of pest resurgence, secondary pest outbreaks, development of pest resistance, decimation of natural enemies on one hand and disturbances to environment and health hazards through residues in food chain on the other hand. These side effects have raised public concern about the safety of pesticides. Today we are confronted with the herculaean task of providing environmental and food security to our expanding population. This calls for reorientation of our strategies to minimize the use of chemical inputs in agriculture and depend more on eco-friendly sustainable crop protection approaches without causing disruption to fragile eco-system. Integrated pest management (IPM) is one such environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on combination of common- sense approaches and fits into the concept of sustainable agriculture. IPM incorporates ecological and economic factors into agricultural ecosystem and decision making and addresses public concern about environmental quality and food safety. Today, IPM is considered to be the springboard to sustainable crop management and forms a focus of the present book.

The thirty eight chapters covered in these 2 volumes deal with various facets of pest management. The book begins with a chapter on maintenance of diversity in sugarcane ecosystem highlighting its importance from pest management perspective. The ramifications of introduction of new pests along with the movement of plant materials and germplasm are well known. The chapter \'Indian plant quarantine system\' focuses on such sanitary and phytosanitory issues. The role of geospatial technologies, simulation modeling, entomopathogens and chemical pesticides in IPM programmes has been highlighted and discussed. There is need to integrate traditional knowledge of farmers with other advanced techniques in order to develop a profitable and sustainable approach to pest management. The chapter on ITK\'s stresses upon the indigenous knowledge in cotton ecosystem.

Adequate focus is on pheromone technology, which is a major tool for monitoring of pests for initiating pest control measures. The sustainable IPM technologies developed and practiced for major cropping systems viz; cotton, rice, vegetables, pulses, oilseeds, oilpalm and spices have been discussed in various chapters. In all, the book comprises of 38 chapters on various topics with recent technological advances such as maintenance of diversity in pest management, national plant quarantine system, geospatjal technologies, simulation modeling and climate change, disease resistance, utilization of pheromones, diagnostics of viruses, eco-friendly pest management, mites and rodents pest management, bio-agents and entomopathogens, weed management and IPM in temperate horticultural crops.

The book Sustainable Crop Protection Strategies attempts to comprehend and consolidate the scattered knowledge on sustainable pest management strategies. The book would not only serve as a reference but also as a guide and inspiration for shaping future research on modern plant protection tactics. The book will also prove useful to all those interested in promoting the cause of IPM so that sustainability in agricultural system and environmental protection for future generations is achieved.