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In the previous issue, we reviewed the history of the crop protection in farming. In this publication, we will take a close look at the three valuable crop protection tools in Modern Ag – Pesticide, bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), and microbial products.

Pesticides: an ancient but valuable crop protection tool

Every year, as much as 40 percent of the world’s potential harvests are lost to damaging insects, weeds, and plant diseases. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), these losses could double without pesticides and other crop protection practices.

Most farmers, including both organic and conventional farmers, use some type of pesticide to keep insects, weeds and plant diseases from hurting their crops. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to harvest nearly as much.

Pesticide is an age-old crop protection tool. More than 5,000 years ago, humans began to use sulfur to clear away insect pests in farmlands. In 600BC, the Greeks and the Romans started using oil, ash and other substances to control insect pests. Thereafter, nicotine, herbs and even copper were used as pesticides.

Importantly, pesticides help farmers use water, soil, and other important resources more efficiently. For example, some pesticides are used to control weeds, which steal water from crops. And controlling weeds with pesticides can help significantly reduce soil erosion by minimizing the need to till fields. That also helps mitigate climate change by reducing carbon emissions.

There are three main types of agricultural pesticides

Herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides are three main types of agricultural pesticides. herbicides protect plants from weeds that can steal water and nutrients; insecticides protect plants against harmful insects; fungicides protect plants from fungi that spread disease.

According to Phillips McDougall, the total global pesticide sales reached 51.21 billion in 2015, of which herbicides ranked first, accounting for 42.3%, followed by insecticides and fungicides, which accounted for 28% and 26.8%, respectively. With farmers’ enhanced awareness of crop protection, as well as the increased volume of plantations of high-value economic crops, the use of fungicides has increased stably, making it a most fast-growing pesticide variety.

Farmers Use pesticides sensibly in a targeted way

There’s no single solution when it comes to crop protection. Pesticides work best when used in the right place, at the right time, and in the right amount. Weed, insect, and disease levels change every season, so farmers adapt to use only what’s necessary.

With the speedy development of science and technology, innovative pesticide products have continued to be launched in the pesticide market. Market players are combining different ingredients, innovating new formulations, to develop new products for farmers. Furthermore, modern tools like GPS guidance on sprayers and site-specific nozzles help farmers use only as much as needed, which enables a more safe, efficient, and precise pesticide application.

For example, roughly 25 percent of the U.S. lettuce crop is treated using “see-and-spray” technology. Sprayers with this ability can take a picture of the crops on the ground, calculating the exact location of weeds growing among the crops. This information is then transmitted to precise sprayer nozzles, which target only the weed, leaving the crop untouched.

Bt: modern AG’s smallest rock star

It lives in soils around the world. It acts as an effective natural insecticide. And it regularly wins battles against moth and caterpillar species 20,000 times its size. It’s called bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, and it’s one of the most versatile tools in modern agriculture.

A good helper of organic and conventional farmers

One of Bt’s virtues is that it exists naturally in soils around the world. Another is its insecticidal properties. First discovered in 1901 in Japan, these properties have made Bt an indispensable crop protection tool for 100 years.

For the past 50 years, Bt has been used by organic farmers as an approved microbial pest control agent (MCPA) in a liquid spray form. Four individual strains have proven especially useful, making up the bulk of those used in organic farming. Overall, thousands of strains of Bt have been identified, and at least 200 of them have known insecticidal properties.

Conventional farmers are also finding value in using Bt. Starting in 1995, seeds genetically modified with the Bt protein have been rapidly adopted around the world.

These biotech traits are environmentally beneficial, as they help reduce the spraying of topical insecticides, and they only target the pests that are eating crops.

Targeting billion dollar pests

Insects like the European corn borer, the pink bollworm, and the corn rootworm have done billions of dollars of damage to many different crops over the past couple decades, in every agricultural region on the planet. Take corn root worm as an example, corn root worm is a pest that has been dubbed the “billion-dollar-bug” because of the extensive below-ground damage it causes to corn plants.

These borers and worms all have one trait in common: an alkaline digestive tract that makes them susceptible to a specific protein produced by Bt, known as Cry proteins. This specificity means Bt provides a very precise and targeted form of insect control, while harmless to other beneficial insects, as well as humans and domesticated animals. (Photo from: ModernAgriculture.org )

Biotech Traits for Many Crops, in Many Regions

(Photo from: ModernAgriculture.org )

Microbial: learning from Nature on the Farm

Like the discovery and application of Bt protein, in agriculture right now, many researchers are taking a closer look at nature’s processes for lessons to apply on the farm. One of the most important discoveries is the role microorganisms play in maintaining the health condition of soil.

Improved microscopes and imaging technology have advanced our understanding of microbial activity, cellular processes, and soil health. One small spoon of soil contains 50 billion microorganisms (over 10,000 species), the bacteria and fungi in soil are important to plants, helping crops to absorb nutrients and minerals from soil and to resist ingression of insect pests.

(Photo from: ModernAgriculture.org )

As humans need probiotics to stay healthy, growers are using microbial products for crop management. Microbials, the name given to products that are derived from or contain naturally-occurring materials, such as bacteria, fungi, virus and protozoa, have a range of potential applications in farming, including:

• Helping with plant health, including nutrient uptake and plant vigor

• Targeted crop protection, including pest management and disease resistance

• The possibility of complementing or replacing traditional fertilizers and chemicals

Microbials can be apply topically or available as a seed coating. According to the report of Markets & Markets, the sale of microbial products in 2017 reached $3.09 billion, which is expected to reach $6.01 billion in 2022, at a compound annual growth rate of 14.21%.