Agricultural pests blemish, damage or destroy more than 30 percent
of crops worldwide. This annual loss has remained constant since
the 1940s, when most farmers and ranchers began using agrichemicals
to control pests.
Farmers need insect pest management strategies that are effective,
affordable and environmentally sound. Manage Insects on Your
Farm: A Guide to Ecological Strategies is a pest management
primer designed to help farmers improve their farms’ natural
defenses against insect pests.
While every farming system is unique, the principles of ecological
pest management apply universally. Manage Insects on Your Farm
outlines the principles of ecologically based pest management and
illustrates the strategies used by farmers around the world to address
insect problems by:
 Increasing
on-farm diversity above and below ground
Encouraging
beneficial insects to attack their worst pests
Enhancing
plants’ natural defenses against pests
Managing
soil to minimize crop pests
“Well written and illustrated, Manage Insects on Your
Farm provides both a framework for understanding ecologically
based pest management as well as many of the useful details to help
minimize insect pest problems,” said Fred Magdoff, University
of Vermont soil scientist and regional coordinator of USDA’s
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program.
Examples of successful pest management strategies featured throughout
the book demonstrate real-life examples of how to address insect
problems and develop a more complex and diverse on-farm ecosystem.
Readers will learn how to minimize insect damage with wise soil
management and identify beneficial insects to put these “good
bugs” to work.
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