Effects of Crop Management, Farming Systems, And Semi natural Habitats at the Landscape Scale on Biological Control of Insect Pests in Agro ecosystems

Abstract

A rising body of data suggests that land use simplification combined with a heavy reliance on pesticide inputs is lowering environmental quality, endangering biodiversity, and increasing the risk of pest outbreaks. The development of agricultural methods that rely more heavily on ecosystem services, such as biological insect pest management, should improve agroecosystem sustainability. The variables that contribute to the preservation or improvement of natural pest control, on the other hand, are unknown. The aim of this study is to reveal which factors affect natural enemy populations and pest control at various scales, from the field to the landscape. In order to assess their relative significance and identify important factors that govern natural pest control interactions, we describe here the main impacts of semi natural habitats, farming methods, and crop management on the abundance of insect pests and their biological control. We propose a thorough description of cropping systems and an explicit consideration of semi natural habitats and the surrounding environment in research exploring trophic interactions and biological pest management because of the variety of geographical and temporal scales encountered by these species. We also highlight information gaps and show the value of combining agronomy and landscape ecology to better understand trophic relationships, optimize natural pest management, and reduce pesticide use. A key stage in the design and evaluation of ecologically sound integrated pest control systems for farmers is quantifying the relative significance at both local and landscape scales.